A few days ago, the guru of the Movement 5 Stars, Beppe Grillo, wrote an article on his blog in which he quoted the theory American activist Brett Henning on the 'end of the political'.

"If we replaced the elections with the draw and rendessimo our truly representative parliament of society, mean the end of politicians and politics as we have always thought," theorizes Grillo.
The output of the comic made me feel compelled to explore the theme because, as I explained on Motherboard, often its proposals, as presented in a disorderly fashion, raise futuristic themes and visionaries.
I'd like Grillo was not the only politician to push Italian.
The intent was to determine scientifically if you can combine the classic with parliamentary elections selected by lottery.
In 2011 they published a paper on the theme, again on Physica A, which then led to the book Democracy at random in 2012 and the creation of an official project page.
But how would it be possible to integrate the randomness in Parliament?
I asked directly to them in a conversation held in part on Skype and partly by mail.
"In a recent work, still unpublished but downloadable online at this link, we suggest you adopt a mixed system (election + draw).
According to this recipe, going to the polling station on election day, citizens are faced with two options.
The first is to vote for candidates put up by parties list.
Alternatively, those who do not vote for parties - and that at the time could only abstain or vote white card - can add your name in a separate list: 'sortition list', "explained the researchers.
At the close of voting, a few seats in Parliament are allocated precisely to those who chose to enroll in the list.
Clarify with an example.
It is what occurs is the percentage of eligible voters who declined to enroll in sortition list, let's say 30%.
In this case, only 70% of the seats to be divided among the parties according to votes taken.
The 30% of the seats, however, is reserved for citizens drawn by lot from the list on the occasion of each new bill to be discussed in Parliament.
"This would ensure a continuous rotation of parliamentarians drawn and thus deprive them of acquisition attempts by the parties, allowing them to keep the voting independence, as demonstrated by our mathematical and computational models, would ensure increased efficiency legislative action , "the researchers explain.
To cover the risk of losing seats, the parties would be forced to improve their election manifesto putting in longer list of candidates thickness.
Indeed, the team simulated the computer a unicameral parliament with two political coalitions - majority and opposition - and has tried to include in the parliamentary raffled model.
The parliament is identified by a graph: x-axis shows the personal benefit and on the y axis the collective benefit that comes from the actions of every parliamentarian.
The average behavior of a parliamentarian is identified by a point on the graph.
In the simulation, each Member can only perform two tasks: to advance bills - that coincide with its position in the chart - and vote for or against the proposals.
The efficiency of the parliament is the result of the product between the percentage of draft laws approved in the legislature, and the average social well-being that comes from it.
An example of the graph of the Parliament simulation.
Researchers at the University of Catania repeated simulations, randomly varying the positions of parties and independent legislators in the diagram.
The result is that a hung parliament Independents or where all the members are independent (without parties) has an efficiency practically close to zero.
In the first case, you are passed a number of laws but their welfare is modest.
In the second case, instead, only a very small number of proposals are approved with a high collective advantage.
Based on this, the researchers made an "efficiency golden rule" that determines the intermediate percentage of independent deputies to add to a parliament to maximize efficiency.
As I have explained the researchers, "a mixed system of this type would have a doubly beneficial effect.
To cover the risk of losing seats, the parties would be forced to improve their election manifesto putting in longer list of candidates thickness.
The citizens, however, earn the chance to get rolling in the "nerve center" and give their concrete contribution to the community, without having to commit to full term, and without having to leave their jobs.
Maybe they finally riavvicinerebbero to politics. "
The historical record dates back to ancient Greece, in Athens, where the members of the assembly were drawn.
"We would be glad if our proposal, for us absolutely serious and provocative at all, were discussed rigorously and maybe implemented, for one thing, in the municipalities and regions.
Today M5S could be in the ideal condition to insist this battle, that move in the direction of that "direct democracy" so celebrated by the Movement in years past, would restore credibility to a now more and more in the thick of the political class.
Perhaps the post of Beppe Grillo is the symptom that you are indeed a small gap opening in the direction we hoped for. "
The trend of the curve determined by the "golden rule."
Although it may be counterintuitive, random approaches do matter because even in the administration policy.
The historical record dates back to ancient Greece, in Athens, where the members of the assembly who took collective decisions were drawn.
The same happened in the Italian Renaissance common, such as Bologna, Florence and Venice, where the Doge himself could be chosen with a mixed system of elections and draw.
The most recent examples, however, are the French and Swiss communities in which we consult the public through juries with members drawn by lot.
In Canada, meetings with randomly selected members among ordinary citizens have reformed electoral laws, in California, randomly selected citizens have decided the energy plans of the state, while, in Iceland, a thousand randomly selected citizens has even rewritten the Constitution .
"The benefits are obviously a renewed participation of citizens in public affairs.
To our knowledge, there are no contraindications, "concluded the researchers.

From Vice