Sortition
makes systematic use of random selection as a principal
means of ensuring organisational impartiality and integrity
in the fields of market research, opinion polling and staff
recruitment in areas where sensitivity to such requirements
is of important commercial or legal significance.
There are two discernible weaknesses in present polling
practices which Sortition policy and business methods are
aimed to address. The first is bias in the conduct of
opinion poll surveys. For example it is a widely
acknowledged fact that UK polls on a general basis tend to
overestimate support for the Left. This tendency is so
established that 'dampeners' are deliberately applied to
estimates for Labour support in the period before an
election so that polls appear more closely in line with the
election results themselves. Even with the dampeners in
place however, polls have still overestimated Labour
support in six of the last eight elections. After
elections, the dampeners are removed and estimates for
Labour are again routinely polled at still higher levels.
This tendency to exaggerate Left support can be detected in
regard to poll estimates for both the Labour party itself
and also for individual Labour policies. A prominent
example of this was the ICM August 2004 poll in regard to
support for the North East Regional Assembly which Labour
attempted to establish in England using an all postal
ballot referendum. ICM estimated 78% support for a regional
assembly: the referendum taken a few weeks later recorded
almost exactly the opposite figure.
The second discernible weakness in present polling
practices which Sortition policy is aimed to address
concerns the degree and orientation of research advice
which can be offered to customers regarding polling
practice. A number of cases can be cited which demonstrate
that polling organisations tend to err on the side of
'Left' perspectives not only in their survey results but
also in the design and direction of opinion research to
such a degree as to jeopardise their standing as
necessarily impartial institutions. There are two important
examples which demonstrate this tendency: first, the
refusal in March 2000 of the Electoral Reform Society to
conduct a privately financed referendum on legislation
prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality in Scotland's
schools; second, the attempt of ICM in March 2004 to
deprioritise Europe as a subject for Conservative Party
polling requirements, which led to termination of their
contract.
There are two policies which Sortition will pursue and
uphold to help address these weaknesses in polling
practices. First, Sortition will employ where appropriate
the systematic use of random selection as a principal means
to enhance the impartiality and integrity of internal
Sortition staff recruitment practices, survey respondent
selection, and focus group participant selection. In
particular, Sortition is the first international polling
agency to employ random selection practices which are
organised according to autonomously directed, transparently
predictive and retrospectively verifiable operating
schedules. These schedules can also be made available for
external recruitment work for other agencies. One
particular merit of an autonomously directed program of
random selection is that subjective preferences of
pollsters can be completely eliminated in regard to certain
specific operational aspects of polling practice.
Second, Sortition staff will operate in accordance with
standards of impartiality which derive from policy
guidelines informed by a theoretically advanced mission
statement which grants full recognition to the dependent
relation between common sense and non partisan forms of
democratic practice. Against this background where, for
example, question prompting is necessary to the success of
polling operations (and frequently this is practically
unavoidable) it will be conducted within defined parameters
of non-partisanship at the interface between political and
commercial affairs. These policy guidelines are published
on this website, the full mission statement is available on
request.