钝化的民主利器——文艺复兴时期佛罗伦萨共和国的抽选制

Sortition in Florentine Republic in the Renaissance Period

作为官员选拔制度的抽选制曾在古希腊和文艺复兴时期意大利的城邦民主中发挥关键作用。相比带有精英气息的选举,抽选表达了民主制度对于参政机会均等更为彻底的诉求。佛罗伦萨共和国留下了有关抽选的丰富史料,就运用抽选的时段和深度而言,佛罗伦萨对抽选制的实验堪称西方民主制度史上的高峰,而抽选制在佛罗伦萨的腐化和衰亡也给予后世深刻教训。以佛罗伦萨共和国为样本,回溯抽选在一时一地发展的历程得失,总结抽选与选举的辩证关系,将有助于洞察抽选制的特性和利弊,从而更好地理解和应对现实问题。

Sortition, as a political system for choosing officials, had played a significant role in some critical stages of democratic history like the Classical Greece and the Renaissance Italy. Compared with elitist selec- tion, sortition conveyed the most radical appeal for equality of political participation. Sortition experiment in Florentine Republic during the Renaissance period can be considered as another summit in post - Classical Athens democracy, and its decline also left profound lessons. Looking back upon the gain and loss of the de- velopment course of sortation, summarizing the dialectical relationship between sortition and election will be beneficial to understand the advantages and disadvantages of sortition system and thus to deal with realistic problems much better.