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I've long thought sortition could be adapted for our government and make it more democratic. Properly randomized selection among the qualified and willing would
by toss1 1y ago
I've long thought sortition could be adapted for our government and make it more democratic. Properly randomized selection among the qualified and willing would ensure no one has a sufficient chance of great power to make it worth attempting to plot to exploit the system for their benefit (although some opportunist would try while in office). I'd have it work something like the following:
Once a person has achieved a certain level of demonstrated competence and responsibility, they are entered into the pool. The criteria might include a college degree, certain military rank, level of business responsibility, running a charity of a certain size and success level, etc.
The willing must also pass a series of tests, e.g., the standard security clearance, citizenship test, knowledge of humanitites, science, technology, history, finance, and law, and be vetted with a background check filtering out criminal behavior, tax evasion, etc. Once in the pool, it is like Jury Duty; your number comes up, you get a quick screen for the office, exemptions for hardship (so the alternate is picked) and that will be your job for the term.
To mitigate the problem of everyone in govt being newbies, once in office, any official can stand for a confidence/no-confidence vote for re-election for one or two terms (depending on the office).
The pay would be the greater of the 75th percentile earnings or 100% of the officials documented income for the previous three years.
Obviously, this is a mere headline sketch and needs many more details and suggestions to work, but it seems it would improve on the current situation.
Thoughts?
- Tuperoir 1y ago>knowledge of humanitites, science, technology, history, finance, and law, and be vetted with a background check filtering out criminal behavior, tax evasion, etc. Who would remain ? What would be the incentive to train for this, besides money ?
- toss1 1y agoI'm not talking expert-professional-level knowledge. Merely sufficient familiarity with the STEM, History, etc. to be able to pass undergrad distributive requirements. In this age, if you do not have a clue about how the scientific process actually works and basic concepts, and you don't understand the basics of how and why the country and it's constitution are built, you do not have any business writing the laws of the country. Too many current congress people couldn't pass these tests and it shows. If we cannot, among a country of ~330 million, with 90+million with college education or above [0], find less then 20,000 [1] qualified and willing to fill state and national offices, we are pretty much doomed as a nation. Even if we do something like include all 500k local offices, and then require prior local or state service to fill a national office, it should be a good selection. OFC, if there is a problem, you can always increase the incentives (good idea) or lower the standards (bad idea). Since it is a temporary office, making the pay even more attractive than I mentioned above would be good -make it 95th-percentile or 115% of previous income to compensate for any inconvenience (e.g., a business owner who must vacate their position for 2yrs will likely have costs) [0] https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2022/demo/educational-attainment/cps-detailed-tables.html https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2022/demo/educational-att... [1] https://poliengine.com/blog/how-many-politicians-are-there-in-the-us https://poliengine.com/blog/how-many-politicians-are-there-i...