From the earliest times, people have used lotteries to make decisions--by drawing straws, tossing coins, picking names out of hats, and so on. We use lotteries to place citizens on juries, draft men into armies, assign students to schools, and even on very rare occasions, select lifeboat survivors to be eaten. Lotteries make a great deal of sense in all of these cases, and yet there is something absurd about them. Largely, this is because lottery-based decisions are not based upon reasons. In fact, lotteries actively prevent reason from playing a role in decision making at all.Over the years, people have devoted considerable effort to solving this paradox and thinking about the legitimacy of lotteries as a whole. However, these scholars have mainly focused on lotteries on a case-by-case basis, not as a part of a comprehensive political theory of lotteries. In The Luck of the Draw, Peter Stone surveys the variety of arguments proffered for and against lotteries and argues that they only have one true effect relevant to decision making: the "sanitizing effect" of preventing decisions from being made on the basis of reasons. While this rationale might sound strange to us, Stone contends that in many instances, it is vital that decisions be made without the use of reasons. By developing innovative principles for the use of lottery-based decision making, Stone lays a foundation for understanding when it is--and when it is not--appropriate to draw lots when making political decisions both large and small.

Part One: The Logic of Random SelectionChapter 1: Why Lotteries?1. The School Board Tosses a Coin2. Lotteries, Lotteries Everywhere .3. Absurd yet Obvious4. The Story So Far5. The Argument to ComeChapter 2: What Do Lotteries Do?1. What Is a Lottery?2. Fundamental Features of Decision-Making3. Decision-Making by Lottery4. The Lottery Principle5. Indeterminacy without Lotteries6. Lotteries and DivinationPart Two: Lotteries and JusticeChapter 3: Allocative Justice1. The Relationship between Lotteries and Justice2. The Just Lottery Rule3. Consent, Opportunities, ExpectationsChapter 4: Impartiality1. What Does Allocative Justice Require?2. Allocative Justice and Outcomes3. Allocative Justice and Actions4. Impartiality and Indeterminacy5. The Right and the GoodChapter 5: The Implications of Impartiality1. The Nature of the Impartiality Principle2. Theories of Justice3. Alternatives to Random SelectionPart Three: Lotteries beyond JusticeChapter 6: The Idea of Sortition1. Sortition in Practice2. Sortition and Justice3. Incentive Alignment4. Descriptive Representation5. Random Selection in Other ContextsChapter 7: Conclusion