In governance, sortition (also known as allotment) is the selection of officers as a random sample from a larger pool of candidates.In ancient Athenian democracy, sortition was the primary method for appointing political officials and its use was regarded as a principal characteristic of democracy.Sortition is commonly used to select prospective jurors in common law-based legal systems and is sometimes used today in forming citizen groups with political advisory power (citizens' juries or citizens' assemblies).Sortition is also a kind of stochocracy.