At 12:22 PM 8/14/2005, Warren Smith wrote:
I disagree with the claim they are. Democracy is about choice by the voters.
Actually, voting is only one device used in a democracy, and not the most important factor. The most important factor is the consent of the governed.
Elections can actually act against this, whenever the system disenfranchises the minority. "Majority rule" is an important democratic principle, but not when applied within an oligarchical structure that only provides a very limited choice at very limited times.
Direct democracy is true democracy. Representative democracy, as implemented in the U.S., is actually pretty far from that. Because of the structure, a small plurality, broadly distributed, can end up with all the representatives. It usually does not get quite that bad, but it can.
"No taxation without representation." Okay, who is *my* representative? That guy? But I did not vote for him, he may be *your* representative, he is not *mine.*
If there were no alternative, we might think this simply the least evil of the alternatives. But there is an alternative, and it is not new.
Asset voting, used to create a PR assembly, for example, would produce nearly full representation. Delegable Proxy not only would produce full representation but would also create a system in which the citizen would know exactly who represented him or her *and* vice-versa. In other words, representatives would actually be *representatives*. Not office-holders.....
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