#79. A Long-Neglected Form of Government with the Potential to Revitalize Democracy

Roger Berkowitz is a professor of Political Studies and Human Rights, as well as the founder and academic director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities, both at Bard College. He is the author of The Gift of Science: Leibniz and the Modern Legal Tradition, an account of how the rise of science led to the divorce of law and justice and the editor of Revenge and Justice, a special issue of Law, Culture, and the Humanities. In October of 2021, the Arendt Center hosted a conference entitled, “Revitalizing Democracy: Sortition, Citizen Power, and Spaces of Freedom,” ab­out a mode of government that originated in ancient Greece with great potential for our own times. The Center has also provided trainings in the large scale use of digital tools for citizens around the world to enhance their involvement in policy-making.