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The "let's pick people at random to discuss hairy topics" has been done at least three times in France in the form of "Convention Citoyenne". In each case, peo
by phtrivier 10mo ago
The "let's pick people at random to discuss hairy topics" has been done at least three times in France in the form of "Convention Citoyenne".
In each case, people came up with relatively "popular" solutions (one of them is still in progress)
In each case, the elected officials all but ignored the output, on the ground that the body had not been elected, was manipulated by experts, had no responsibility and accountability, etc...
Anyone who solves this will indeed have found an improvement over elective democracy.
In the case of the US, a lower hanging fruit would be getting out of "elections that can easily be bought by corporations with litteral money".
- haizhung 10mo agoYep, people in this thread are claiming that this doesn’t work. In fact, it does work, and it is already implemented! Here in Germany we also have the concept of „Bürgerräte“, and we have similar problems as in France (no political power to implement their solutions). However, one takeaway was that people vastly underestimated how carefully the participants would try to understand the topic at hand. People that would usually just regurgitate angry propaganda were forced to form their own opinion and they did! IMHO it’s this is a great tool for democracy that is yet underused.
- phtrivier 10mo agoBut how useful is it as a tool if nothing is implemented in the end ? What's worst is that, at least in France, there was an elegant solution to the problem : just ask the general population to approve or reject the proposals in a referendum. Even if the referendum was consultative, and even if the lawmakers were to make the law in the end, it would have massively made it harder to ignore the result. And I would have loved to see the "popular jury" campaign for or against the measures.