An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
Interesting suggestion from Adams, worthy of consideration, but it strikes me as complicated and easily abused. The option to delegate your vote could easily lead to votes being bought.
I very much like the notion of direct democracy but the question is how to make it workable.
There's the Swiss method, copied by some U.S. states, where citizens must petition to get an issue placed on the ballot. The petition process is difficult enough to keep the number of ballot issues manageable.
The problem with the Swiss method is that while it's possible for a grass roots movement to collect the petition signatures, it doesn't happen very often because it requires a lot of volunteer work and organization. In practice state referendums have been dominated by conservative special interests because they have the money and organization to make it happen.
I think it would be better to mandate that all "big" issues be placed on the ballot. Basically exempt little stuff like naming post offices but anything that requires large appropriations or taxes, anything that involves civil rights, and anything that involves foreign policy should be on the ballot.
It would be better still if there were ranked choice voting for ballot issues. For example, instead of a yes or no vote on the budget, we could rank our preference for the Democratic budget vs. Republican budget vs. Green budget, etc..
There would be no need to call a separate election for each issue, and thus no need to rely on the internet for voting. A routine annual election would suffice and paper ballots would work fine. Voting by mail would work even better because voters would have time to carefully read and research each issue.
When was the last time Congress did something so urgent than it couldn't wait a few months? The only thing I can think of would be a declaration of war and Congress no longer bothers with those, anyway.
"dominated by conservative special interests because they have the money and organization to make it happen. " Yeah Dan the Swiss have had a referendum on the gold standard a few times... Crazy.
6 comments:
http://gawker.com/call-donald-trumps-cell-phone-and-ask-him-about-his-imp-1720472577
We may be able to impart knowledge about MMT to The Donald ;)
Interesting suggestion from Adams, worthy of consideration, but it strikes me as complicated and easily abused. The option to delegate your vote could easily lead to votes being bought.
I very much like the notion of direct democracy but the question is how to make it workable.
There's the Swiss method, copied by some U.S. states, where citizens must petition to get an issue placed on the ballot. The petition process is difficult enough to keep the number of ballot issues manageable.
The problem with the Swiss method is that while it's possible for a grass roots movement to collect the petition signatures, it doesn't happen very often because it requires a lot of volunteer work and organization. In practice state referendums have been dominated by conservative special interests because they have the money and organization to make it happen.
I think it would be better to mandate that all "big" issues be placed on the ballot. Basically exempt little stuff like naming post offices but anything that requires large appropriations or taxes, anything that involves civil rights, and anything that involves foreign policy should be on the ballot.
It would be better still if there were ranked choice voting for ballot issues. For example, instead of a yes or no vote on the budget, we could rank our preference for the Democratic budget vs. Republican budget vs. Green budget, etc..
There would be no need to call a separate election for each issue, and thus no need to rely on the internet for voting. A routine annual election would suffice and paper ballots would work fine. Voting by mail would work even better because voters would have time to carefully read and research each issue.
When was the last time Congress did something so urgent than it couldn't wait a few months? The only thing I can think of would be a declaration of war and Congress no longer bothers with those, anyway.
"dominated by conservative special interests because they have the money and organization to make it happen. "
Yeah Dan the Swiss have had a referendum on the gold standard a few times... Crazy.
Wow! Donald Trump's cell number!
Don't call him collect ;)
Post a Comment