8 ms·

I don’t think direct democracy is a good system, but perhaps that’s an issue with democracy as a whole. Decisions based on the majority’s choice are not always

by hk__2 11y ago

I don’t think direct democracy is a good system, but perhaps that’s an issue with democracy as a whole. Decisions based on the majority’s choice are not always the best and you can easily end up in a situation where propositions are made based on popularity instead of effectiveness. Propose to remove all taxes or give $1m to every citizen and you’ll probably get a significant share of the population with you even if it’s absurd. The problem is uninformed vote: people who’re not informed/serious enough to make a wise decision. You have to either educate people (but in that case, who does that? How do we ensure they’re not biased?) or prevent them from making decisions (but that’s dictatorship: how do you ensure the dictator(s) stay wise and benevolent?).

mike_hearn 11y ago
Decisions based on the minorities choice are not always the best either. Unfortunately, the sentiment you're expressing here is increasingly common, especially in America. Pew Research have been doing surveys since the 1960's that show that the percentage of people who agree that they have "a good deal of confidence in the wisdom of the American people" has been in steep decline for decades, and people who agree are now in the minority: http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-number/declining-confidence-in-political-wisdom-of-americans/ http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-number/declining-confidence... This is IMO leading directly to the popularity of guys like Trump, whose brand of politics is based almost entirely on "don't trust democracy, trust me". Unfortunately, it's easy to take for granted the stability that democracy brings. Yes, sometimes, bad decisions are made ... or we look back on earlier times and judge their decisions as bad in retrospect (although at the time, lots of people thought it was good, e.g. slavery, oppression of gays etc). But history has shown us what happens when you choose the alternative of decision making by small minorities of self-proclaimed "elites". You get communism and much worse decision making. By the way, your lack of faith in people is either misplaced, or a purely local phenomenon. For instance in Switzerland there are 16 referendums per year, and people do in fact vote against things that would be trivially good for them in the short term but possibly worse in the long term, like longer holidays. Switzerland is in fact an excellent example of how the world's most democratic country is also one of its most stable and prosperous.
- hk__2 11y ago
  Do you think it has something to do with the size of the country? E.g. Switzerland has 8M people; is decision making easier there than it would be in e.g. the US and its 320M people?
  - mike_hearn 11y ago
    The USA has referendums at the local level. I think it's certainly easier to do that when you have a smaller population, but power in Switzerland is extremely localised even within its relatively small area. Localism and democracy go hand in hand - for the USA to become more democratic in the style of Switzerland I think you'd need to see a re-assertion of states rights.

by hk__2 11y ago

mike_hearn 11y ago

Decisions based on the minorities choice are not always the best either. Unfortunately, the sentiment you're expressing here is increasingly common, especially in America. Pew Research have been doing surveys since the 1960's that show that the percentage of people who agree that they have "a good deal of confidence in the wisdom of the American people" has been in steep decline for decades, and people who agree are now in the minority: http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-number/declining-confidence-in-political-wisdom-of-americans/ http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-number/declining-confidence... This is IMO leading directly to the popularity of guys like Trump, whose brand of politics is based almost entirely on "don't trust democracy, trust me". Unfortunately, it's easy to take for granted the stability that democracy brings. Yes, sometimes, bad decisions are made ... or we look back on earlier times and judge their decisions as bad in retrospect (although at the time, lots of people thought it was good, e.g. slavery, oppression of gays etc). But history has shown us what happens when you choose the alternative of decision making by small minorities of self-proclaimed "elites". You get communism and much worse decision making. By the way, your lack of faith in people is either misplaced, or a purely local phenomenon. For instance in Switzerland there are 16 referendums per year, and people do in fact vote against things that would be trivially good for them in the short term but possibly worse in the long term, like longer holidays. Switzerland is in fact an excellent example of how the world's most democratic country is also one of its most stable and prosperous.

hk__2 11y ago
Do you think it has something to do with the size of the country? E.g. Switzerland has 8M people; is decision making easier there than it would be in e.g. the US and its 320M people?
- mike_hearn 11y ago
  The USA has referendums at the local level. I think it's certainly easier to do that when you have a smaller population, but power in Switzerland is extremely localised even within its relatively small area. Localism and democracy go hand in hand - for the USA to become more democratic in the style of Switzerland I think you'd need to see a re-assertion of states rights.