I have recently been reading The Ottoman Endgame by Sean McMeekan. In it there is a description of the Soviet negotiators going to negotiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. On the way, one of the lead negotiators (Joffe) realised he had no "representative of the Russian peasantry" on the delegation. They literally stopped in the street and asked a peasant to come with them to the Peace Conference.
The dialogue went as follows. What are your politics? Socialist Revolutionary. Left or Right? Left, of the Leftist. Having secured this answer off they went with the peasant Stashkov as part of their delegation.
Some people in the Labour Party still use this method of selection today.
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