4 ms·

that's not what I see when I look into our parliaments – they look very oligarchic and represent fewer and fewer professions and ways of life.

hunglee2 4y ago
yes, this is an interesting take. The issue in this case is how we select our representatives, which I agree seems to be unrepresentative and even dynastic. The solution would require refactor of the system though, not a defence of it as the author implies in his article. It is not so much 'social media is undermining democracy' as much as social media is exposing a democratic system, which is in need of reform'
- mro_name 4y ago
  possibly as in ancient Greece at times - by lot. We have a similar situation with lay judges. For each district, exactly the same number of electoral districts and thus seats in parliament will be allocated. The remuneration will surely be interesting for many and who does not want can refuse. Draws will be made among all people living there. Including children (represented by their legal guardians in case) and illegal immigrants, former inmates and GAFAM CEOs. Admittedly radical, but if we want to have a representative cast of the parliaments the most honest approach.
  - hunglee2 4y ago
    I'm up for any kind of experimentation, as I think one thing all the commentators in this thread can agree on, the current system is creaking at the seams. How about more direct democracy? Representative democracy is a compromise for an era when the will of the people was practically too challenging to collect - something which has been solved in large part by social media. Perhaps the problems described by the author of the article is precisely the tension between a legacy system, made obsolete by new communication technology. If this is the case, we need to embrace more technology, not less and really lean into it. Maybe we could do a geo-fenced direct democracy for example?
    - mro_name 4y ago
      legislation should not be delegated to a stable, forseeable, small number of possible actors. Corruption starts spot on. In a representative democracy legislation is a people duty because it is about the rules for all of us. So we have to decide. Still the effort is brutal and requires full-time. So we need professionals (for a period), because we also need the lesser motivated people's views. Social media (as is today) is to fragile, to toxic, to susceptible to surveillance and censorship, to centralised and to non-inclusive (in sum: non convival) to be even helpful.

hunglee2 4y ago

yes, this is an interesting take. The issue in this case is how we select our representatives, which I agree seems to be unrepresentative and even dynastic. The solution would require refactor of the system though, not a defence of it as the author implies in his article. It is not so much 'social media is undermining democracy' as much as social media is exposing a democratic system, which is in need of reform'

mro_name 4y ago
possibly as in ancient Greece at times - by lot. We have a similar situation with lay judges. For each district, exactly the same number of electoral districts and thus seats in parliament will be allocated. The remuneration will surely be interesting for many and who does not want can refuse. Draws will be made among all people living there. Including children (represented by their legal guardians in case) and illegal immigrants, former inmates and GAFAM CEOs. Admittedly radical, but if we want to have a representative cast of the parliaments the most honest approach.
- hunglee2 4y ago
  I'm up for any kind of experimentation, as I think one thing all the commentators in this thread can agree on, the current system is creaking at the seams. How about more direct democracy? Representative democracy is a compromise for an era when the will of the people was practically too challenging to collect - something which has been solved in large part by social media. Perhaps the problems described by the author of the article is precisely the tension between a legacy system, made obsolete by new communication technology. If this is the case, we need to embrace more technology, not less and really lean into it. Maybe we could do a geo-fenced direct democracy for example?
  - mro_name 4y ago
    legislation should not be delegated to a stable, forseeable, small number of possible actors. Corruption starts spot on. In a representative democracy legislation is a people duty because it is about the rules for all of us. So we have to decide. Still the effort is brutal and requires full-time. So we need professionals (for a period), because we also need the lesser motivated people's views. Social media (as is today) is to fragile, to toxic, to susceptible to surveillance and censorship, to centralised and to non-inclusive (in sum: non convival) to be even helpful.