20 February 2007
Direct Democracy
Our founding fathers created a political system that allowed the government to make policy decisions in a way that represented, as best it could at the time, the will of the people. The device they chose, that was invented several millennia earlier, was democratic election of delegates to a Congress.
Now, technology has superceded that device. It enables a government to operate efficaciously based on direct decision-making by the governed.
Of course, there is still the need for an assertive executive to carry out the policy decisions of the governed, and for a bureaucracy efficiently to elaborate and implement those executive directives. Moreover, adjudication of the people’s rights and privileges should still be in the hands of a trusted coterie of wise men and women. However, elected representation is no longer needed. It is even counterproductive, delaying the discharge of the people’s will, and acting to prevent direct democracy in order to protect its own future.
We are all intelligent and informed enough to govern ourselves. The world has become yesteryear’s village because of communications technology. Publius, the authors of the Federalist, defended their proposed republican system of government as the best alternative to the democracy that was only practicable in small communities. Nevertheless, they also defended innovation in the way people govern themselves.
We no longer need the intervention of what has become an entrenched class of influence peddlers in Washington. Those elected representatives would be more effective if they were forced to earn their value daily by having to offer their advice to citizens of a direct democracy for use in coming to policy decisions directly. That advice would then be evaluated for its correctness and their services kept for hire only as needed.
Our founding fathers created a political system that allowed the government to make policy decisions in a way that represented, as best it could at the time, the will of the people. The device they chose, that was invented several millennia earlier, was democratic election of delegates to a Congress.
Now, technology has superceded that device. It enables a government to operate efficaciously based on direct decision-making by the governed.
Of course, there is still the need for an assertive executive to carry out the policy decisions of the governed, and for a bureaucracy efficiently to elaborate and implement those executive directives. Moreover, adjudication of the people’s rights and privileges should still be in the hands of a trusted coterie of wise men and women. However, elected representation is no longer needed. It is even counterproductive, delaying the discharge of the people’s will, and acting to prevent direct democracy in order to protect its own future.
We are all intelligent and informed enough to govern ourselves. The world has become yesteryear’s village because of communications technology. Publius, the authors of the Federalist, defended their proposed republican system of government as the best alternative to the democracy that was only practicable in small communities. Nevertheless, they also defended innovation in the way people govern themselves.
We no longer need the intervention of what has become an entrenched class of influence peddlers in Washington. Those elected representatives would be more effective if they were forced to earn their value daily by having to offer their advice to citizens of a direct democracy for use in coming to policy decisions directly. That advice would then be evaluated for its correctness and their services kept for hire only as needed.
Comments:
Post a Comment
