We Should Let a Lottery Decide Our Government (2019)
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderMost modern incarnations of this idea revolve around Citizen Assemblies. Ireland, as an example, convened a citizen assembly in order to discuss and propose reforms on topics like abortion, climate change, and political reform. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens%27_Assembly_(Ireland) The idea behind Citizens Assembly isn't very controversial. Randomly select a large pool of citizens, have them discuss a topic in great detail with plenty of testimony from experts, and then vote on their recommendations. In…
Maybe. I am bothered that there's an unofficial pre-election in the US that is called campaign financing. It skews candidates towards the wealthy, corporate backed, or populist. If elections were publicly financed somehow, then perhaps we'd see a more representative selection. At least they wouldn't be beholden to donors as often.
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 110
- Total comments
- 162
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-11-09 | We Should Let a Lottery Decide Our Government | pseudolus | 1 | 0 |
| 2019-11-10 | We Should Let a Lottery Decide Our GovernmentFirst breakout | pseudolus | 45 | 84 |
| 2025-05-21 | We Should Let a Lottery Decide Our Government (2019)Best thread · Latest 20+ point return | Tomte | 64 | 78 |