Adding randomly selected 'independent' citizens to a government can make it more efficient than one run entirely by political parties.
March 31, 2026
Original Paper
Parliamentary Efficiency under Majority and Supermajority Rules: The Role of Independent Legislators
arXiv · 2603.27810
The Takeaway
Using physics-based models of social interaction, researchers found that polarized political parties often get stuck in gridlock. Introducing a small group of 'independent' legislators chosen by lottery breaks the deadlock and allows the system to reach a consensus much faster.
From the abstract
Parliaments dominated by two political blocs often face legislative inefficiencies as polarization increases. A central institutional question concerns how majority and supermajority rules interact with parliamentary composition to balance governability and minority protection. This article examines how the inclusion of independent legislators, introduced through sortition, affects collective decision-making under different majority and supermajority quorum requirements.Using an agent-based mode