Math helps to randomly select the fairest citizens’ assemblies since antiquity
In 1983 the Eighth Amendment to the Irish constitution enshrined an abortion ban that had prevailed in the nation for more than a century. Public opinion on the issue shifted in the new millennium, however, and by 2016 it was clear that a real debate could no longer be avoided. But even relatively progressive politicians had long steered clear of the controversy rather than risk alienating voters.
What’s more, unlike elected bodies, these assemblies are chosen to mirror the population, a property that political theorists refer to as descriptive representation. For example, a typical citizens’ assembly has a roughly equal number of men and women , whereas the average proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments worldwide was 26 percent in 2021—a marked increase from 12 percent in 1997 but still far from gender balance.
Then, the magistrate used a mechanism to reveal the marbles one by one. If the first marble was gold, the 10 citizens whose tokens appeared in the top row were added to the jury; if it was white, they were all dismissed. And so on, down the column of marbles and the rows of citizens: gold meant in; white meant out. To select a jury of 30 citizens, for example, the magistrate would include three gold marbles in the mix.
Until recently, the prevalent approach relied on what computer scientists call a “greedy algorithm.” This is a bit of misnomer because such an algorithm is really guilty of sloth rather than greed: It takes the action that seems best right now, without making an effort to understand what would work well in the long term. To select an assembly, a greedy algorithm adds volunteers one by one in a way that makes the most immediate progress toward filling the quotas.
To create a fairer algorithm, my collaborators and I adopt a holistic approach. Instead of considering volunteers one at a time, we consider the entire ensemble of potential assemblies, each of which meets all the demographic quotas. Each candidate assembly is given a lottery ticket that specifies its probability of being selected as the actual assembly. The probabilities are determined later, in such a way that they add up to 100 percent, and there’s only one winning ticket.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
National Report Card shows drop in SDUSD reading & math proficiency -SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – San Diego Unified School District announced today that a U.S. Department of Education report found that reading scores for fourth- and eighth-grade students were largely unchanged since 2019, while math results declined. The 2022 candidates for the SDUSD School Board are focusing on these shifts in their rapport. KUSI’s Ed Lenderman went live at the San...
Read more »
Texas students show 'appalling' drop in math scores since pandemic, report saysScores from the National Assessment of Education Progress, often called the 'Nation's Report Card', show students in every state, including Texas, is seeing historic levels of learning loss since the pandemic began.
Read more »
Indiana’s NAEP scores show biggest decline in math as leaders weigh COVID’s falloutIndiana students’ math and reading scores on “the nation’s report card” declined from pre-pandemic results, with the state’s average math scores declining the most.
Read more »
Column: Those math and reading scores were horrible, but beware of the political spinColumn: Politicians will use new data showing math and reading declines in schools to make partisan points about the pandemic. Don't let them do it.
Read more »
Alaska students stay steady in reading but decline in math since pre-pandemic, says national assessmentLisa Parady, with the Alaska Council of School Administrators, said the numbers tell a story educators already know: Students were impacted by the disruption to their learning caused by the pandemic and it will take a while to work through those effects.
Read more »
Alaska students stay steady in reading but decline in math since pre-pandemic, says national assessmentLisa Parady, executive director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators, said the numbers tell a story educators already know — the pandemic disrupted learning, and it will take a while to work through those effects.
Read more »