>>>>> Keith Addison writes:
> Representative democracy is not the only way. The Swiss example
> is one alternative, a much admired one, Churchill
> notwithstanding (not that he's much of an example). There are
> quite a few others, and also many different forms of
> representative democracy.
Sure there are other ways. I just don't think the current system in
the US is as broken as you seem to.
As for Churchill, he did lose an election at what he saw as his moment
of triumph, with the nation still on a war footing, and stepped down
gracefully. That in itself says a lot for the British form of
representative democracy, and there are many countries around the
world where that would still be unthinkable.
> Teledemocracy could certainly do one whole lot better than all
> this half-assed, cobbled-together, shoddy crap people call
> "democracy" these days. Churchill aside (please), others have
> said democracy hasn't been tried yet. Hard to argue with
> that. Now's the time. We have the technology.
I agree that direct democracy has never been tried, at least on a
scale larger than ancient Athens or the New England town meeting (even
the Swiss model is not total direct democracy). You might say that
the California ballot initiative process has been one of the larger
experiments in that direction, and I wouldn't say the results have
been encouraging. It is just as dominated by money nowadays as the
representative elections are. Just imagine how much more money would
be thrown at a national referendum system.
Also, this "half-assed, cobbled-together, shoddy crap" (if you are
referring to the US) has stayed intact for over 200 years, longer than
almost any other system of government on the planet.
--
Kelsey Jordahl
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