Comments for Europe leads the way on direct democracy at http://adamsmith.org , comment 1 to 2 out of 2 comments http://adamsmith.org Fri, 22 Aug 2008 04:33:46 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://adamsmith.org/blog/government/europe-leads-the-way-on-direct-democracy-200805141375/#comment-219 One way I have considered previously to make more direct democracy possible in a larger country (such as the US) would be to implement a proxy voting system. It could be similar to the parliamentary system where you require the direct support of a plurality of proxy votes to stay in power. At any time, an individual voter could change their proxy and therefore their support. This would allow people to have a more direct say without requiring everying to spend hours a day reading and voting on laws. It would be interesting to see how an idea like that develops. I can see that a professional proxy class would develop and they would often be wedded to organizations like AARP or the NRA. Some people would decry this, but I don't see it being worse than what we have now, and in some ways better. Incidently, I think this could be a way of making choices for each function of government closer to the will of the people. In this case, you would have direct support for each of the main branches of the executive. The problem this aims to rectify is, at least in the US, the two main parties may have the right idea in different areas, but you have to choose one omnibus package. In the interest of stability, you could make it so that these sub-elected officials less responsive to the electorate to avoid problems such as electing the "Department of Eating Cake" as well as the "Department of Having It Too". - anomdebus Wed, 14 May 2008 17:53:43 +0100 http://adamsmith.org/blog/government/europe-leads-the-way-on-direct-democracy-200805141375/#comment-214 It is interesting that the two counties that have a love of 'order and rules' also have a mechanism for the citizen to force re-thinks. I suppose it come from the ancient Swiss concept that cantonal government is no more than an expression of the will of the people expressed once a year at a direct voting meeting. The EU hates it!! Let's not forget that some states in the USA have similar mechanisms. - Steve Giess Wed, 14 May 2008 10:29:01 +0100