“The Common Lot: Next Step for Democracy” speculates what a legislature ‘by’, as well as ‘for’ and ‘of’, the people might be.   The video explores the idea of a citizen legislature chosen by lot, by random selection, creating a microcosm proportionate to the actual population. Besides the obvious benefits – eliminating the weight of money and the gloss of media stature – such a body would no longer be psychologically skewed to those self-confidently aggressive enough to stand the rigors of an electioneering campaign. The ship of state would be guided by the quietly thoughtful as well as by the rhetorically dominant. Such a proportionally representative deliberative body would afford a much wider spectrum of opinion than the lockstep demanded by political parties. Given this country’s demography, this ‘next step for democracy’ would be largely middle-class, ideologically moderate, generous and free.