&gt; &gt; I&#x27;ve long maintained congress would be much more representative if eligible citizens were randomly selected for 1 congressional term, like jurors are in juries.<p>&gt; And like jurors in juries, wouldn&#x27;t we then be governed by people not smart enough to get out of their congressional term?<p>Now, I think that a by-lot Congress is a really bad idea for a variety of reasons, but that&#x27;s a moderately stupid argument when it comes to juries (given that it assumes that <i>everyone</i> is actively seeking to avoid jury service, so the only people who actual serve are those who fail), and its even stupider applied to Congress -- its relatively common for people to want to have a say in the government of their country (to the point where already wealthy people will sometimes spend many times the salary a member of Congress earns per term on a campaign out of their own money), and shifting from an elected to a by-lot Congress would reduce the political power of voters as voters, increasing the delta represented by serving in Congress.<p>And that&#x27;s even before considering that members of Congress are paid substantially more than most workers; changing nothing besides the selection method would make being selected for Congress not much different than winning the lottery for most citizens -- only those who are both already wealthy and politically disinterested would have rational, self-interested reason to avoid service.