Alexander Guerrero, "Lottocracy: Democracy Without Elections" (Oxford UP, 2024)
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What problem does Alex Guerrero see with modern electoral democracy?
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Hello and thanks for joining us for this episode of New Books in Philosophy, which is part of the New Books Network. I'm Robert Talise and I'm Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co-host the program with Carrie Figder, Malcolm Keating, and Sarah Tyson. Today, my guest is Alex Guerrero. Alex is professor of philosophy at Rutgers University. He specializes in social and political philosophy and philosophy of law. His new book has just been published with Oxford. It's titled Lotocracy Democracy Without Elections. Now elections loom large in our everyday understanding of democracy. Though I take it we also readily acknowledge that our electoral apparatus is questionable from the democratic point of view.
For example, very few citizens have access to the kinds of resources that would enable them to stand for election. Consequently, political candidates and therefore office holders tend to come from pretty elite social backgrounds. What's more, elections involve campaigns, and campaigns almost always deploy various persuasion techniques, many of which are deceptive, manipulative. Mm downright toxic. Once elected, officials begin seeking reelection. And that means that they must devote a great deal of attention to potential donors to their reelection campaigns. And on it goes. If by democracy one means rule by the people. It's difficult to see how contemporary electoral practices empower us. Now, our fixation with elections as the sine quanan of democracy is relatively recent.
Aristotle, for example, claimed that elections are fundamentally oligarchic, not democratic, and that lotteries were the truly democratic way of filling public offices. Now in this new book, Alex proposes a non electoral vision of democracy that relies on what he calls single issue legislatures composed of citizens chosen by lottery. Now, as usual, there's plenty to talk about. But let's begin, as we usually do, with our guest. Hello, Alex.
Hi Bob, thanks for having me.
Oh, it's great to great to have you. Thanks for writing the book. Um You know, Wha well, why don't we start where we normally do? Uh you know, c can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Sure. Um So a lot of places I could begin, I think uh I'll start with where I s kind of got interested in philosophy and also some of these ideas about democracy and In a way, uh so my father was born in Cuba and grew up there until he was uh adolescent and then uh came to the United States certainly before the Cuban Missile Crisis, um, you know, as a child through this Operation Peter Pan. So he was sent to live with family in Washington State. I ended up growing up in Washington State, not immediately after that.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What problem does Alex Guerrero see with modern electoral democracy?
0:00–7:42
2
How does Guerrero’s personal history shape his view of democracy?
7:42–16:10
3
What are the main internal criticisms of elections that the book outlines?
16:10–23:41
4
How does the proposal of “single‑issue legislatures” work in practice?
23:41–31:44
5
What role do learning phases and expert testimony play in a lotocratic system?
31:44–39:41
6
How does random selection address issues of elite capture and short‑term bias?
39:41–47:19
7
What are the ethical and epistemic challenges of scaling lotocracy?
47:19–54:52
8
How might societies transition from electoral democracy to lotocracy?
54:52–1:02:36
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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Rivka Weinberg, "The Meaning of It All: Ultimate Meaning, Everyday Meaning, Cosmic Meaning, Death, and Time" (Oxford UP, 2026)
PJ DiPietro, "Sideways Selves Travesti and Jotería, "Struggles Across the Américas" (U Texas Press, 2025)