2.5 Voting

Voting has been used as a feature of democracy since the 6th century BC, when democracy was introduced by the Athenians.

However, in Athenian democracy, voting was seen as the least democratic among methods used for selecting public officials, and was little used, because elections were believed to inherently favor the wealthy and well-known over average citizens.

Assemblies open to all citizens, and selection by lot (known as sortition), as well as rotation of office seems to be more democratic for Athenians.

One of the earliest recorded elections in Athens was a plurality vote that it was undesirable to “win”: in the process called ostracism, voters chose the citizen they most wanted to exile for ten years.

Most elections in the early history of democracy were held using plurality voting or some variant, but as an exception, the state of Venice in the 13th century adopted the system we now know as approval voting to elect their Great Council.

2.5.1 Sortition

Sortition (also known as allotment or the drawing of lots) is the selection of decision makers by lottery. The decision-makers are chosen as a random sample from a larger pool of candidates.

In ancient Athenian democracy, sortition was the primary method for appointing officials, and its use was widely regarded as a principal characteristic of democracy.