Leucosticte
Posts: 84
Joined: Sun May 26, 2019 4:20 am

Delegative democracy is the best of the one-man, one-vote voting systems

Tue May 28, 2019 12:26 am

Lately, I've noticed elected officials have become less responsive to constituent input. If you write to them, typically you won't even get a letter back.

I find it annoying, since we pay them and their staff some good money to represent us, yet they often don't seem very representative. One political issue I care about, for instance, is cannabis legalization. The theory behind a republic is that we need elected officials to look at the evidence and be smarter than the average joe; yet I think I'm smarter on the topic of pot legalization than a lot of the people representing me. Their decisions are being driven, anyway, by whoever in their base is the most vocal on a given issue, and willing to vote based on it.

But what am I really going to do about it? If a Libertarian runs in my district, maybe I'll vote for him, but that probably won't happen; I'll be stuck voting for either the (D) or the (R), or writing someone in.

A good system for this type of situation is delegative democracy, where you can pick whomever you want to cast votes on your behalf on legislation. So, let's say I and 999 other people pick a Libertarian to represent us; he'll then be casting 1,000 votes in favor of pot legalization if it comes up for a vote in the legislature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delegative_democracy

Of course, some would argue that we would be better off with a monarchy, or aristocracy, or neocameralism, or anarcho-capitalism. Those systems have benefits too, but a lot of them have an element of delegative democracy anyway. E.g., in the corporate world, people select proxies rather than showing up to vote at the annual meeting in person.

We're probably not going to switch to any of those systems any time soon, but delegative democracy is a heck of a lot better than first-past-the-post, or instant-runoff voting, etc. if we want people to feel represented.(Sometimes what's more important than substantively good decisions is procedurally good decisions; i.e. making people feel like justice is done, even if they got fucked over.)

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icycalm
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Re: Delegative democracy is the best of the one-man, one-vote voting systems

Tue May 28, 2019 12:36 am

Leucosticte wrote:The theory behind a republic is that we need elected officials to look at the evidence and be smarter than the average joe; yet I think I'm smarter on the topic of pot legalization than a lot of the people representing me.
The purpose of democratic politicians is not to make good decisions. In every field their decisions are trumped by the decisions of specialists.

The purpose of democratic politicians is to be as popular as possible, in order to please as many people as possible and prevent the country from descending into civil war. If they accomplish this, they've done their jobs decently enough. Anything more is a bonus.

More info here: http://orgyofthewill.net/

And yes, it is my site.

And yes, it is hardcore radical. And it's okay if people here don't agree with everything, or with nothing. I wouldn't even advise anyone with lower than 130 IQ to bother reading it. It will seem like gibberish to them, like all philosophy.

Leucosticte
Posts: 84
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Re: Delegative democracy is the best of the one-man, one-vote voting systems

Tue May 28, 2019 12:50 am

la noblesse wrote:
Tue May 28, 2019 12:36 am
The purpose of democratic politicians is not to make good decisions. In every field their decisions are trumped by the decisions of specialists.

The purpose of democratic politicians is to be as popular as possible, in order to please as many people as possible and prevent the country from descending into civil war. If they accomplish this, they've done their jobs decently enough. Anything more is a bonus.
Okay, so we can go for the bonus.

It's kind of like the jury system -- juries actually tend to make pretty bad decisions, from what I've seen, but a jury trial gives people a feeling of having "had their day in court" where they had an opportunity to be judged by their peers. Of course, if you're of above-average intelligence, they're not really your peers; the judge would be closer to being your peer, if he weren't part of the establishment, and if you weren't a dissident (which you presumably are, if you're being prosecuted).

A lot of people who end up on juries (rather than just skipping out of their "public service") seem eager to feel good about themselves by striking a blow for some cause or another (e.g. protecting the children) with their verdict. Of course, it has to be some cause that has mainstream appeal, or they won't be able to get their fellow jurors to go along with it.

In our multiracial, multicultural society, a jury might not have more than one or two people who look like you (i.e. are of the same sex, race, nationality, etc.) and therefore would be able to relate to your culture and experience; but theoretically, all it takes is one dissenter to hang the jury. Problem is, most people don't have the balls to do that.

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icycalm
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Re: Delegative democracy is the best of the one-man, one-vote voting systems

Tue May 28, 2019 1:34 am

We are mere decades away from the vast majority of homo sapiens being rendered useless and incapable of contributing anything to society by having their simplistic low-skilled jobs replaced by machines. At that point, billions of homo sapiens will be plugged into VR pods 24/7, each secluded in his own reality where he is the coolest person around, and all of them will be parasitical to the species since they won't be creating anything. All they will be doing is consuming vast amounts of energy for nothing. That's when a radical solution will be needed (which, however, as I explain in my book, may very well amount to little more than pulling their plug from the wall).

That's why I am not too interested in the details of our democratic system, because no amount of fine-tuning of it will prevent this outcome. It's basically unavoidable, and hence democracy's days are numbered. It had a good run, it served its purpose while it lasted, and it's now in its last legs. I am perfectly happy to enjoy its sunset years, while contemplating the form of government that is to come.

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The Father
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Re: Delegative democracy is the best of the one-man, one-vote voting systems

Tue May 28, 2019 3:23 am

I have no issue with representative democracy in a republic, but as the American Founders envisioned it, not as we have bastardized it. Men of a certain age who have had some success in life seem best positioned to make decisions for the group. Remember that, when the Founders wrote the constitution, 21 was middle age. Now the average life is ~80, but we let 18 year old children vote. And n'er-do-wells: Their life choices have been disastrous, so why not let them lead our lives, too? LOL. Men should vote, and have to pass both an IQ test and an asset test to do so (If you've had no success in your own life, and therefore have no stake in society, you shouldn't have a say in MY life).

And women. I don't have to say anything about that, Kipling said it better than I ever could:

So it comes that Man, when he gathers to confer
With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a place for her
Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts his erring hands
To some God of Abstract Justice—which no woman understands.

And Man knows it! Knows, moreover, that the Woman that God gave him
Must command but may not govern—shall enthral but not enslave him.
And She knows, because She warns him, and Her instincts never fail,
That the Female of Her Species is more deadly than the Male.
"Banh mi" is a great sandwich. "Ban everyone who disagrees with me" is the mark of a power-hungry moderator.

vintologi.com
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Re: Delegative democracy is the best of the one-man, one-vote voting systems

Tue May 28, 2019 10:49 am

It doesn't solve any of the fundamental problems with democracy, so it's still a shit system.

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