Possible period model: the lottery in the Florentine Republic.

[ffride wlffsdotter (ffride wlffsdotter)]

I'll start by saying I have a terrible head cold, so I apologise if I don't make sense with this post.

I think the use of a lottery system in the Florentine Republic, to elect the gonfalonier as the head of the council that administered the republic, is a good model to look at. Not just because it utilised a lottery, and not solely because it put people in positions of power for ~2-6 months, but because of the steps they took to select for suitable candidates.

The system, according to Yves Sintomer, worked like this from 1328 until the end of the 15th century:

]From 1328 onwards, the majority of official positions were attributed by lot (called la tratta). The candidates' names were put in pouches (borse) and sortition provided the way of selecting those who would be in charge for a certain period. The members of the
Signoria (edit: administrative council) were selected by lot.... The selection process actually took four steps.
(1) In the first one, selection committees in each neighborhood had to choose those citizens who were considered apt enough to hold the office, according strict personal and political criteria.
(2) During the second phase, the list of those who had succeeded (the so-called nominati) was scrutinized by a city commission composed of preeminent citizens, the arroti. The names of those who achieved a qualified majority (two thirds of the ballots, in a process called squittino) were put in leather pouches (imborsati). For those offices that were attributed through quotas, there were different pouches for the major and the minor guilds.
(3) Sortition itself only took place in the third step when the names were withdrawn from the pouches. Ad hoc officials, the
accopiatori, were in charge at this crucial moment. The names of those who had not been selected were left in the pouches for the next sortition. After an unusual or important political event (such as a revolution or a drastic change within the regime) had taken place, a new
squittino would be organized before the old pouches were empty.
(4) The last step consisted of eliminating the names of those who had been selected but who did not fit the necessary criteria for office (the so-called procedure of the divieti.) If any of those chosen still owed taxes, had served in a similar capacity in the recent past, had been sentenced in respect to certain crimes, had a parent in a similar position or already held an other important office, they would not be allowed to take up their posts.

Some of this checking and re-checking would probably be irrelevant for us, as the contents of the pouches were only changed every 5 years, and I would assume we would be working on much smaller time-frames, similar to the time taken from someone submitting their letter of intent to the day of the Crown tournament. Interestingly, but probably more of a reflection of how much of the SCA relies on the same people to volunteer in positions, as "a prior could not take up the same office for the two years following the end of his term, and his family members were prevented from doing so for one year. This served to prevent the wealthiest families from monopolising the exercise of power, and worked to the benefit of those who did not have family connections." (Source.)

And then, as now, there seems to have been a lot of worry about how to determine if someone would be an appropriate candidate. Naturally, they had their own criteria we shouldn't be reproducing (eg. age and gender restrictions), but the concerns seem to be broadly similar to the ones expressed on this forum: how do we know that someone has the ability to do the job, and be somewhat representative of society as a whole.

Their criteria were somewhat different, but at the final procedure of the divieti, candidates could be rejected for criteria such as being under-age or deceased at the time of being drawn, being absent from Florence, " in tax arrears (speculo), or subject to a variety of other conditions." (Source.)

(By the later 15th century, the guilds, who were key to men holding Florentine citizenship, were selecting for individuals who had previously been elected into the role, or were the descendants of prior office-holders, because their experience in a leadership position was considered most important (Source). Which is something we probably want to avoid!)

There is even some idea of the ceremony behind the lottery in English-language sources. The Online Tratte of Office Holders 1282-1532 site says:

The Borse containing the name slips were kept under lock and key in the sacristy of the Basilica of Santa Croce. The chest they were kept in was taken to the Palazzo della Signoria and opened in the presence of the Gonfaloniere di Giustizia, Priors, Collegi, and other officials. Extractions by the Notaio of the Riformagioni (one of the subordinate administrative officials) began with the oldest existing set of Borse (a new scrutiny did not negate the right of individuals earlier scrutinized to be considered for office--and older Borse were sometimes joined together). Names were drawn and their current eligibility for office was determined.

I am certain there is ample room for pomp, ceremony, and tension in this process.

Incidentally, there is a small photo of a surviving leather borse, with name slips, online at the Online Tratte of Office Holders 1282-1532 website.

References:

• De Angelis, Laura. 2014. "Florence's ruling class at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries." Revue française de science politique Vol. 64, pages 1123-1137. Online.
• Boutier, Jean, and Sintomer Yves. 2014. "The Republic of Florence (from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries). Historical and Political Issues." Revue française de science politique Vol. 64), pages 1055-1081. Online.
• Online Tratte of Office Holders 1282-1532
• Sintomer, Yves. 2010. "Random Selection, Republican Self-Government, and Deliberative Democracy." Constellations. Volume 17, Issue 3, pages 472-487.
  (There's a copy of the article as a PDF here.)

[EleonoraRose (Eleonora Rose)]

I'm so glad you found a period example of a lottery in action. This is great!