Good Afternoon, Michael
re: "Should these people be allowed to shift their votes? You
asked specifically about the possibility of *guiding* those
who are already elected."
I don't want to waffle, but I can't give you a categorical response to
your question because it presumes an infrastructure different from the
one I had in mind. The circumstances you describe are, essentially, an
implementation of direct democracy. That does not make it bad. In
fact, it might be quite good, but I think it goes beyond representative
democracy and the heart of my proposal is to harness human nature to the
task of improving the quality of the people who represent us in our
government.
When I spoke of 'guiding' our representatives, I was thinking in terms
of a means by which an elected official's constituents could communicate
their opinions and attitudes. More, I suppose, like letters to the
editor than voting. It's true that I also envisioned the possibility of
referendum and recall ... which would certainly involve voting ... but I
don't favor carrying that capability to every nitty-gritty detail of
government.
If one's goal is direct democracy, your suggestion is exemplary
(although I think it might be cumbersome in practice and would
effectively restrict participation to those who express themselves well
in writing).
re: "You were concerned about manipulation. Do you still think
the process can be manipulated? In the context of these
scenarios, what form would the manipulation take?"
In the context of the scenarios you described, I'm hesitant to offer an
opinion. Even though I can imagine such silliness as an adjacent
homeowner inveighing against the proposal because she doesn't want sand
blowing onto her dinner table, I really don't think manipulation would
be a serious problem in the scenarios you described. However, when we
are talking about elevating candidates for public office by the
Practical Democracy method, when the higher levels are reached, the
likelihood that vested interests would conduct campaigns to get voters
to switch their votes is immense.
Were these two comments responsive to your questions? I've had a major
influx of family members over the past few days, here to help celebrate
my impending 80th birthday, and I fear my focus is not all it could be.
On another topic, I've been a member of World-Wide-Democracy.net (WDDM)
for a few years, but have not been active for about two years. It
occurs to me that your work might be of great interest to the people at
that site. You can find them at:
http://www.world-wide-democracy.net/Wiki/WddmWikiMain
Fred Gohlke
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