You have been selected randomly from the list of registered voters to write the new California state constitution:
This method might sound the strangest but actually may hold the most promise. It has been used in Canada and elsewhere. A scientific sampling of Californians would be randomly selected from the statewide voter list, like a jury pool.
The Bay Area Council, a group of business leaders, has proposed randomly selecting 400 Californians to create a body of average citizens who could bring their common sense and pragmatism to the problems at hand. Those delegates would be paid to participate for eight months, starting with an intensive two-month education process in which they would hear from many experts about the problems and potential solutions for California.
This rather reminds me of a well-known comment by William F. Buckley made more than 40 years ago:
I am obliged to confess that I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University…
It does underscore a serious point about constitutional conventions. Who would participate in such a convention? If the electors were drawn from the current body of elected officials, as in all likelihood would happen if the drafters of a new constitution were to be elected, would they be inclined to solve the problems that brought them there but which were the rules under which they were elected to office? If they’re appointed, who does the appointing?
