I see a real philosophical problem with this. The whole point of having a republic is so that the people can make public decisions in common. Any chamber which is not subject to popular control is therefore anti-republican, even if it is more demotic than the chamber the people would have chosen for themselves. That it is only one of two chambers doesn't help much; it's certainly more representative in a statistical sense than a House of Lords would be, but is just as unrepresentative in the sense that the community the members legislate for never made a choice to authorize them to represent it.
--- On Tue, 9/9/08, Terry Bouricius <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Terry Bouricius <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [EM] language/framing quibble > To: "Fred Gohlke" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [email protected] > Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2008, 4:00 PM > Although it may be off-topic for a VOTING method list, I > have long > advocated a greater use of sortition (the selection by lot) > to select > legislators (perhaps one chamber of a bicameral > legislature?) Having > served ten years as a state legislator in Vermont, USA, I > can assure you > all that legislators are not more qualified, nor wiser, as > Burke hoped, > but rather simply less-representative and more egotistical, > than average > people. The experience and excellent work of the Citizen > Assembly > established by the provincial parliament in British > Columbia a few years > ago is compelling evidence that elections may not be the > key to genuinely > representative democracy. > > Terry Bouricius > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Fred Gohlke" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 4:10 PM > Subject: Re: [EM] language/framing quibble > > > Whoops! > > It was your entire post of Mon Sep 8 03:44:51 PDT 2008 > > I didn't cite it because I was responding to the entire > post, which > follows: > > (clip) > One option is to select the legislature at random. > Stratified random > sampling would yield a highly representative legislature. > The > population would be split into N groups, such that each > group is > reasonably homogeneous and then 1 person picked from each > group. This > also reduces the benefit from corrupting the random > process. Also, > corrupting the stratification just increases the random > variance, it > doesn't actually change the expect result. Corrupting > both means that > you get to pick the legislature. > > This has the advantage that it eliminates the point in > campaigning. > Every 5 years, a group of people get a mail in the post > informing them > that they have been selected for 'legislature duty' > .. though unlike > Juries they would presumably be paid. > > The disadvantage (or advantage depending on your viewpoint) > is that it > leads to a legislature made up of average people. > > I have suggested that a way around it is to have a > multi-stage process. > The people picked at random are asked to select the > 'person they know > who they would most respect to hold office' and that > generates a second > group. The rule would require that the person picked is > somehow > connected to them, say friends or family members. After a > few stages, > say 10, the final group becomes the legislature. > > This should result in a reasonably competent legislature > (assuming each > person picks someone more competent than themselves) and > the rule that > you must pick a friend/family members for each link means > that > campaigning is pointless. > > This resulting legislature would then appoint the PM (or > nominate 2 > candidates for President) and approve any cabinet posts. > > The big disadvantage is that it is unlikely that a person > would be > re-elected. This could lead to short term thinking. OTOH, > each > legislator would know that he will have to live in the > country after his > term ends, so he won't want to mess up to badly. > (clip) > ---- > Election-Methods mailing list - see > http://electorama.com/em for list info > > ---- > Election-Methods mailing list - see > http://electorama.com/em for list info ---- Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
