Good Morning, Kristofer
This portion of our discussion has been about using the inherent
bidirectionality of the Practical Democracy process. The process is
designed to select the best of our people to represent us in our
elective offices, whether in a Congressional or Parliamentary system, or
in a city council. The basic thesis is that, by exercising greater care
in selecting our representatives, we will have less need to monitor them
after they are elected. Even so, some degree of public supervision of
our elected officials is necessary and we are discussing that aspect of
the process.
I will use the term 'pyramid' to indicate the members of the electorate
who participated in the selection of a public official. 'Pyramids' are
defined from the elected official, downward, and every person that
participated in an official's selection is a member of that official's
'pyramid'. Hence, everyone in the electorate is a member of multiple
'pyramids', one for each person they put in public office.
In terms of initiating a recall or suggesting a course of action or
change of position, my suggestion is that every member of the electorate
have the right to petition (i.e., submit questions, comments or
proposals to) their elected officials. They do so by submitting their
petition to the body that maintains the electoral database and that body
must transmit the petition to the official and to all the other people
in the official's 'pyramid'. The petition need only name the public
official, the database will identify the members of that official's
'pyramid'.
When other members of the 'pyramid' receive such petitions they may
support them or discard them, as they see fit, If a petition is
supported by a majority of the members of the 'pyramid' it becomes an
instruction to the official. Even if a petition does not achieve a
majority, if it achieves notable support, it will influence any official
not bent on self-destruction. This is infinitely more effective than
the current method of writing letters to officials ... and the
meaningless responses they generate.
I believe, given the repetitive nature of elections, this method will
allow adequate supervision of our elected officials. It will also
encourage the submission and consideration of minority views.
Fred
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