For the first time, this volume by two leading historians offers a comprehensive study of drawing lots as a central institution of ancient Greek society. Drawing lots expressed an egalitarian mindset that guided selection, procedure, and distribution by lot and was eventually introduced for polis governance, a Greek innovation that appears to be of increasing relevance today.
The authors explore the egalitarian, "horizonal," mindset expressed in using the lot instead of a top-down vision of authority and sovereignty. Drawing lots presupposed equality among participants deserving equal "portions" and was used for distributing land, inheritance, booty, sacrificial meat, selecting individuals, setting turns, mixing and reorganizing groups, and divining the will of the gods. Lot-oracles were used for divination; otherwise, the gods guarded the justice of the procedure but only rarely determined the outcome. It was a self-evident method broadly and ubiquitously applied. Drawing lots would crystallize community boundaries and emphasize its sovereignty. The book further investigates the transposition of the drawing of lots to the governance of the polis. The implied egalitarianism of the lot often conflicted with top-down perceptions of society and the values of inequality, status, and merit. Drawing lots was introduced into oligarchies and democracies at an uneven pace and scale. Its wide use in the democracy of classical Athens was an exceptional case, eye-catching both in antiquity and today.
The book concludes with a discussion about the meaning of the Greek examples for drawing lots today and the increasing interest in using random selection in politics as a possibility for modern democracies around the world. The appendix surveys the Greek vocabulary of lottery practices.
Industry Reviews
"There's much talk in western democracies about possible uses of the lot -the random allocation of civic resources and of political offices in the interests of equality and justice. In this prodigiously researched monograph, two historians track back to a culture and a political model in which the lot came to be seen as central and fundamental to the world's first democratic regimes. Politicians of today, please note -and act." -- Paul Cartledge, University of
Cambridge
"This book provides new perspectives on the uses of the lot from the time of Homer to the Hellenistic period. Malkin and Blok show that the Greeks used the lot for a wide range of practices, from the distribution of war booty to divination. They argue that the lot epito¬mizes the ancient Greeks' preference for practices that were fair and equitable. Drawing lots thus gains a new significance - and a timely one, given today's interest in randomly
selected citizen assemblies to bring a new policy into effect." -- Sara Forsdyke, University of Michigan
"Drawing Lots was one of the foundations of ancient Greek civic egalitarianism. This book is the first comprehensive survey of the practice. Yet it is more than just that: as well as explain¬ing every detail of Greek sortition and the beliefs behind it, the authors also show just how much modern democracy might be improved by borrowing from this ancient system. This is ancient history at its most relevant." -- Ian Morris, Stanford University
"An extraordinary piece of scholarship, this landmark book on the use of lottery in Ancient Greece reshuffles our understanding of the origins of democracy and injects brilliant insights from the past into today's debate on political innovation. Drawing Lots is an incredible tour de force - and an intellectual feast throughout." -- David Van Reybrouck, Bard College