larry@grkermit.UUCP (Larry Kolodney) (08/23/83)
Here's an interesting topic that was tossed around on the Arpanet
poli-sci mailing list, and which I haven't seen here yet:
The reason we have election in this country is supposedly to represent in
government, as best as possible, the will of the people. Yet it seems that
time and time again, our elected representatives turn out to be a bunch of
bozos who belong to a small class of special interests. (mostly lawyers and
businessmen [no lawyer flames!]).
It seems to me that we really don't have a truly representative lot in the
Congress today.
So, instead of electing our congressmen (or M.P.s) why don't we choose them
at random. Lets say we were to just choose 435 people, 1 from each
Congressional district and let them become the lawmakers for a two year
term. They would be given professional staffs who would know how to handle
all the technical details, so level of experience would not be a factor.
I'm not advocating this issue, I just want to hear what others think. --
Larry Kolodney (The Devil's Advocate)
{linus decvax}!genrad!grkermit!larry
(ARPA) rms.g.lkk@mit-aimmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) (08/24/83)
I don't think choosing people at random is a very good idea. Politicians may seem like dopes at times, but I am sure that most of them are *much* smarter than the average (based on the small sample I have met one-on-one). They do, however represent groups who are (a) interested in the law or in power, and (b) either can afford the time to be politicians or obtain some professional advantage from being one. One problem with elections is the election campaign. Once every now and then everything stops while all the candidates sing their own praises, fill the airwaves with unkeepable promises, and so forth. In the USA and some other places this happens at regularly scheduled intervals; in other places when the leader(s) of the party in power decide the time is ripe. However the time is chosen, the mechanism is disruptive, and if the party in power changes at the election, there are rapid policy changes that discourage other countries from trusting the democratic country. I propose two changes that might mitigate these problems: (1) self-selection of electoral groups, and (2) asynchronous elections. (1) Let us suppose that the group being elected (Congress, Parliament or City Council) consists of X members. There are N voters in the electorate, so on average it takes N/X (= W) voters to elect one member. In the USA, British Commonwealth and some other places, these W voters reside in a continuous geographic area. In other places, the W votes come from a partitioning of all votes among the parties contesting the election. I propose that any W people can combine to form an electoral group to elect one of the X members. The group may be Objectivists, Engineers, Followers of Swami Shadreen, or even residents of Exotville, so long as they declare that their vote will be for the member representing the chosen group. If their chosen group has insufficient voters, a second choice or a default group (geographic region) would apply. It seems possible that this method might ensure that a wider variety of interests and professions could obtain representation in the governing body. In respect of item (2), asynchronous elections: Suppose X, the number of members in the elected body, is a multiple of 12 (for small bodies) or 52 (for large bodies). Each member represents one constituency, whether it be geographic or special interest. Every month (for small bodies) or every week (for larger bodies) one member is up for re-election. The business of government goes on without a break for election. If the governing party is very unpopular, it steadily loses members, but if its policies are popular, it gains members. A transition of governing parties would be heralded by a period in which the government majority declined steadily, and other countries would know what to expect because the main opposition would be forced into a position of stating real policies, rather than election-specific ones. I realize that some mechanism must be built in to allow hysteresis, because otherwise the government might change three or five times during a shift of power. Perhaps the government need not be required to resign until it has lost confidence by a majority of more than Z (= 2 or 3). How do these ideas stike you? Martin Taylor
porges@inmet.UUCP (08/26/83)
#R:grkermit:-61400:inmet:7800012:000:1134 inmet!porges Aug 24 14:05:00 1983 It seems to me that we really don't have a truly representative lot in the Congress today. So, instead of electing our congressmen (or M.P.s) why don't we choose them at random. Lets say we were to just choose 435 people, 1 from each Congressional district and let them become the lawmakers for a two year term. They would be given professional staffs who would know how to handle all the technical details, so level of experience would not be a factor. I'm not advocating this issue, I just want to hear what others think. -- Larry Kolodney (The Devil's Advocate) ------------------------------------------------------ -- And the permanent professional staffs will run Congress and be answerable to nobody...or answerable to whoever appointed them. Who appointed them? Oh, uh....well, the President....no, the courts....well, the important thing is that "level of experience won't be a factor", becuase Congress will be made up of inexperienced and unqualified bozos. Don't hit me, Don Porges ...harpo!inmet!porges ...hplabs!sri-unix!cca!ima!inmet!porges ...yale-comix!ima!inmet!porges
porges@inmet.UUCP (09/01/83)
#R:grkermit:-61400:inmet:7800013:000:560 inmet!porges Aug 27 13:17:00 1983 Or here's another way to reapportion the electorate: instead of using geography, use economics. List everybody in the country sorted by how much money they have/earn, then partition into 435 groups. Each group gets one Representative. If the term "economic democracy" wasn't already taken, I'd love to call it that. A lawyer friend of mine assures me that this scheme is highly illegal or unconstitutional...but what a concept. -- Don Porges ...harpo!inmet!porges ...hplabs!sri-unix!cca!ima!inmet!porges ...yale-comix!ima!inmet!porges