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I have added the definition of allotment as used to describe the Greek system of selecting candidates for office.
I've come across this term in several books and papers on Greek Democracy (e.g. The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes), in which the author liberally uses the term "allotment" alongside "allotted" etc.
I contacted the Oxford English Dictionary to see whether this was a correct use, and although it is not in many dictionaries it is in fact in their larger dictionaries and is an acceptable use of the word (in fact it is probably the origin!).
The use of allotment came to political prominence in the UK House of Lords reform. Although the term sortition can be used in place of allotment, there is unfortunately no verb "to sortit" and the terms "allot" and "allotted" began to be used by some contributors.
I've looked at the historical background of "allotments" of land. The evidence is ambiguous. The term may derive from a random allocated of portions of ground (I think as compensation for enclosure of common ground) or it might literally mean a "lot" (a portion) of ground being given out. I.e. it is difficult to tell whether the main concept is random allocation or the act of allocation of a portion.
I was trying to explain to my son what "drawing straws meant" and how it was a fair may to decide who should wake up mum. I somehow got to cleromancy (divination), which was not at all appropriate. Having changed the redirects from cleromancy to be more sensible, I've added a note here to point back to cleromancy, in case anybody might ever looking be looking for a form of divination (who knows?)--Mike 11:41, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
