La democracia es posible

The erosion and deterioration of politics from the citizens’ perspective has raised questions about the best way to do politics. Public policy today seems incapable of rethinking itself, even in the face of a challenge such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We tend to think that politically there are not many alternatives to what we have today. We have become so accustomed to understanding democracy only through parties that any other alternative sounds fanciful. The solution, of course, is not easy. However, for some years now we have been witnessing the implementation of political mechanisms that propose a different way out and that allow us to think, from a renewed perspective, about the tensions that regularly plague democracy.

This book aims to show how the lottery and deliberation can play an important role in the political institutions of today and tomorrow. We will see how they are used to make important decisions in many parts of the world today, and that they were also tools used in historical moments. Drawing lots and deliberation can bring a balancing element to the tension that populates politics today (between democracy and efficiency), for certainly any political alternative has to be as efficient as it is democratic in its forms. To rethink the world, we need to rethink how we collectively make the decisions that affect us.