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I used to think I'd like direct democracy, but after living in California for a few years I realized it wasn't at all what I'd expected. Intelligently voting on
by TheAceOfHearts 9y ago
I used to think I'd like direct democracy, but after living in California for a few years I realized it wasn't at all what I'd expected. Intelligently voting on an issue requires you to invest a lot of time in understanding the topic, its pros and cons, and any far-reaching effects. It's almost like a full-time job, which is why we elect representatives!
- anigbrowl 9y agoThe problem is that governance is complex that representatives are in many respects just incompetent voters. We elect a lot of lawyers because they're skilled in both assimilation and evaluation, but the upshot is legalism, procedural paralysis, exponential growth of the legal corpus, inaccessibility to the citizenry, and factionalism.
- TheAceOfHearts 9y agoI'd actually consider "procedural paralysis" a feature. Writing laws and making changes in such a complex system must be done with extreme care and deliberation. The government is like a huge monolithic repo!
- crdoconnor 9y ago>It's almost like a full-time job, which is why we elect representatives! We elect representatives because our history is dictatorial, and each step taken toward a more democratic system has been a compromise after a revolt between the ruler(s) and the ruled. That usually means leaving them with some power. Direct democracy doesn't mean that you have to make an intelligent decision on every single topic, ever. It means you can choose which topics to make decisions on and which topics you want to delegate to somebody else and whom to delegate it to. It would still mean that you could delegate your vote on decisions about regulating the Internet to notorious full time job holder Ted Stevens if you really wanted.