The Athenian Option: Radical Reform for the House of Lords

"Before New Labour came to power, when reform of Britain's House of Lords was 'in the air', Anthony Barnett and Peter Carty separately came to the idea that the second chamber could be selected by lot. Together they wrote The Athenian Option which set out a case for creating a large jury, or juries to scrutinise and assess legislation." "Originally published in 1998 by Demos, this new edition includes a withering dissection of the Government's new 2008 White Paper An Elected Second Chamber: further reform of the House of Lords - and compares the authors' proposal that Britain should use 'sortition' for its reformed second chamber to the current plans of both Labour and the Conservatives." "It also includes the authors' evidence before Tony Blair's Royal Commission on Lords reform, and some of the press responses to the first edition, including two sets of letters to The Times."--BOOK JACKET.