Are you concerned about the future of democracy? Do you feel democracy is under attack by extreme greed in countries around the world? Are you sick and tired of: living in fear, corporate greed, growing police state, government for the rich, working more but having less?

Can we use both elections and random selection (in the way we select government officials) to rid democracy of undue influence by extreme wealth and wealth-dominated mass media campaigns?

The world’s first democracy (Athenian democracy, 600 B.C.) used both elections and random selection. Even Aristotle (the cofounder of Western thought) promoted the use random selection as the best way to protect democracy. The idea of randomly selecting (after screening) juries remains from Athenian democracy, but not randomly selecting (after screening) government officials. Why is it used only for individual justice and not also for social justice? Who wins from that? …the extremely wealthy?

What is the best way to combine elections and random selection to protect democracy in today’s world? Can we use elections as the way to screen candidates, and random selection as the way to do the final selection? Who wins from that? …the people?

Coincidentally, the BC referendum on STV came up just two weeks ago, and failed (with substantially less support than it had when this interview was made.)

Perhaps you can do a follow-up to this episode sometime soon?

And a few more from Jim Hightower’s The Hightower Lowdown.

Hightower Lowdown excerpt:

…And here’s a creative idea from Garret Keizer. I have no idea who he is, but he wrote a punchy piece in the October issue of Harper’s Magazine that I like and that Lowdowners might want to embrace. He’s calling for a general strike. Not by unions, but by us-you and me. As a symbolically appropriate day, he suggests the first Tuesday of November, the traditional date for our elections – this year, Nov. 6. He dubs it “The Feast of the Hanging Chads.”

A general strike means that We The People, as many of us as possible, would disobey the inept, corrupt, undemocratic (add your own adjective here) system by withholding our presence at for least one day. Don’t go to work. Stay home. Better yet, take some political action. Also, don’t go to the mall, the supermarket, or the bank; don’t use your credit card or make any commercial transaction. This would be the ultimate affront to the corporate president who so pathetically told us after 9/11 that our highest patriotic response to the attack was to “go shopping.” So don’t fly, use your cell phone (hard, I know), watch TV, or otherwise participate. Sometimes, silence is the loudest sound of all. As Keizer says, “As long as we’re willing to go on with our business, Bush and Cheney will feel free to go on with their coup.”

On one level, the strike is against the war, against Bush thumbing his nose at the American majority that has already emphatically said – OUT! – and against the Democratic leadership that can’t seem to muster the will to rein in the Bush administration. On another level, however, this is a strike for the Constitution, a strike against the betrayal of the rule of law and our democratic ideals. It’s a strike for the America we thought this was. It’s an affirmation that the people are the only “larger force” that can stop the BushCheney coup and make America whole again.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_%28Thoreau%29

href=“http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/1404

I just saw HBO’s documentary “Hacking Democracy” last night and it echoed the last paragraph of my fitfully posted comments this morning.(My apologies for apoligies) It will be re-aired Sunday and Tuesday morning at 9:00 AM For those of you who don’t get HBO there is a good review and comment at Computerworld.com – it’s worth your while.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9004584

Thanks for your patience – again apoligies to PaulK

I now live in Massachusetts and have always lived in a chartered city here. I have been to City Council meetings when they were called by special warrant and citizens were allowed to voice an opinion but all voting was left to the city councilors. I have never attended a MA town meeting and wondered if they are like Vermont’s annual ones – held on town meeting day where my experience was limited to sparsely populated towns (less than 1000 residents.) I found this link which describes Massachusetts town meetings.

FWIW http://www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cistwn/twnidx.htm

I still think with the pace and structure of modern US society, this form of government is unwieldy depending of the town’s population (Arlington has over 40K people.).Home rule ballot initiatives (such as a proposition 2 property tax override) are a workable compromise with pro/con opinions (no arguing at city council) just statements and rebuttal if the chairperson allows.

The whole democratic system needs an overhaul as was demonstrated on a national level in 2000 and 2004 – citizens suspect skullduggery and worse. If faith in the system is compromised then people doubt if their vote counts and tend to say “the fix is in” so why bother voting. (see PaulK above) I always vote and believe we get what we deserve whether my choice wins or loses, my power is arguing with whomever I can for my philosophy and the candidate whom I believe best embodies it. See my exchanges with rc21 in the ROS predatory politics thread.

Peace

Jazzman

I now live in Massachusetts and have always lived in a chartered city here. I have been to City Council meetings when they were called by special warrant and citizens were allowed to voice an opinion but all voting was left to the city councilors. I have never attended a MA town meeting and wondered if they are like Vermont’s annual ones – held on town meeting day where my experience was limited to sparsely populated towns (PaulK above) I always vote and believe we get what we deserve whether my choice wins or loses, my power is arguing with whomever I can for my philosophy and the candidate whom I believe best embodies it. See my exchanges with rc21 in the ROS predatory politics thread.

Peace

Jazzman

When we’ve 3 or more candidates for 1 seat (which happens occassionally) we use weighted ballots. You rank your candidates (and you needn’t name all of them if you don’t wish to). With, say, 4 candidates your 1st choice gets 4 pts, your 2nd choice gets 3 pts and so on. The top vote getter wins.

As for your dream – sounds what they call a “multi-stakeholder cooperative”, some of which exists in Quebec. And in the States there is at least one hybrid worker-consumer co-op (Weaver Street co-op in Carrboro, NC). The workers & the consumers each elect 1/2 the Board.

And there’s no need to pay random juries of customers to cast votes, as there is already a 150 year+ long tradition of consumer cooperatives where they’re the owners and vote on a one person/one vote basis. see http://www.ncba.coop

The investors

the workers

the customers

the company’s innovators, and

the neighbors

The tools for electing such a board of directors are:

A single election for all of the directors, using the single transferable vote. This allows for interesting investor/worker coalitions.

Paying random juries of customers to cast votes