I'd remind the readers of this fascinating little article, which includes this summary of Athenian voting... http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/users/mclean/Voting%20in%20Medieval%20Universities% 20and%20Religious%20Orders.pdf
In democratic Athens in the era of Pericles [Josh: he died in 429 BC], the governing institutions were Assembly, Council, and juries. The Assembly was the meeting of all citizens. The executive was the Council, whose membership was chosen by lot and rotation, so that any citizen might be president of Athens for a day. Juries were bodies of (typically) 501, 1001, or 1501 members, numbers being odd to avoid ties. Voting played a relatively minor role, the most common recorded case being votes on proposals to ostracise (banish) citizens. -------------------- By the way, banishment would be cool. We could have banished OJ. -----Original Message----- From: Alex Small [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2002 2:25 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [EM] Silver Linings in Alaska > Lately my thinking has been that anyhow even the best election-method > reform will be sham - a diversion from real democracy that makes a > real difference - so long as we continue to use mass elections to > select or legitimize or rubberstamp a governing officer oligarchy. Joe- I find your suggestions intriguing. I would suggest that better election methods are a necessary step toward your proposals. As I understand it, your goal is to place decision-making authority in the hands of ordinary citizens rather than an elite. To bring that about, we would have to first make the government accountable to us, and then demand the changes you propose. Currently, we have a two-party duopoly. Often the leaders are elected only because their opponents are even worse. A system that allows new options to be competitive is the only way to bring fresh and drastically different ideas into the arena. PR and better single-winner methods are necessary (but obviously not sufficient) steps toward this goal. Alex ---- For more information about this list (subscribe, unsubscribe, FAQ, etc), please see http://www.eskimo.com/~robla/em ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the designated recipient(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. This communication is for information purposes only and should not be regarded as an offer to sell or as a solicitation of an offer to buy any financial product, an official confirmation of any transaction, or as an official statement of Lehman Brothers. Email transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free. Therefore, we do not represent that this information is complete or accurate and it should not be relied upon as such. All information is subject to change without notice. ---- For more information about this list (subscribe, unsubscribe, FAQ, etc), please see http://www.eskimo.com/~robla/em
