1) You mention, as a failure of US democracy, that
“At the national level, we also have the Senate which is not democratic in the first place, and the electoral college, which is winner-take-all in most states and warped in favor of low-population states. (22)”
I would argue that this is a feature, not a bug. The US was, to my knowledge, designed to be a union of individual governments bound together by a federal government. Because each state can have its own distinct laws, people can sort themselves across states to a place with laws they like. This fosters competition between states to have the best laws.
The Senate was never meant to be democratically representing the people; it was meant to be democratically representing the states. If I remember correctly, Senators were elected by the state government originally, not the people.
2) The rest of your points on the failure of US democracy are well-made.
3) How does this democracy serve those too poor to afford the app? Those without internet? Those with mental illnesses that get a vote but are unfit to understand what that vote means?
4) Who runs the app? The federal government? Is the work contacted out to a company? Either option is dangerous.
5) The system you describe is very dependent on user history which must be stored in databases somewhere. In the event of a terrorist attack on those databases (assume the data is lost), how does the democracy continue?
6) At what age does someone get to vote?
7) If a bill was written to redistribute Bill Gates’ money to everyone else (via taxation or any other effective means), what would stop it from getting passed? I’d imagine it would be popular enough.
8) Could a company “campaign” to pass a bill limiting/regulating their competition? If the situation was sufficiently complicated, would anyone notice? In a broader sense, how would this democracy interact with capitalism/socialism?
Thanks for your thoughts. Your questions are quite valid but I’m inclined to punt on them, as you’ll see:
For #3, it depends on the group. If a government were to use it, they could provide access via terminals in public libraries, schools, and other government facilities. If a private group were to use it, they’d probably just exclude the poor.
For #4, 6, 7, 8: It’s intended for use in any democratic organization for the equivalent of ordinary legislation and bylaws, but not intended to replace their constitutions or founding documents. If there are some laws/bylaws that the group doesn’t have authority to make or change (like on citizenship/membership), they would need a separate method of striking those down.
For #5, if the data is lost, they start afresh. They’d lose any prediction scores they’d gained, but if voters can repeat their good predictions, the problem is mitigated, and if they can’t repeat their good predictions, they don’t deserve their old scores.
I justify “punting” because the app is intended to be customized by many clubs and organizations. It doesn’t feel like that’s merely handwaving the hard parts, but perhaps it is.
A very interesting idea. My thoughts:
1) You mention, as a failure of US democracy, that “At the national level, we also have the Senate which is not democratic in the first place, and the electoral college, which is winner-take-all in most states and warped in favor of low-population states. (22)”
I would argue that this is a feature, not a bug. The US was, to my knowledge, designed to be a union of individual governments bound together by a federal government. Because each state can have its own distinct laws, people can sort themselves across states to a place with laws they like. This fosters competition between states to have the best laws.
The Senate was never meant to be democratically representing the people; it was meant to be democratically representing the states. If I remember correctly, Senators were elected by the state government originally, not the people.
2) The rest of your points on the failure of US democracy are well-made.
3) How does this democracy serve those too poor to afford the app? Those without internet? Those with mental illnesses that get a vote but are unfit to understand what that vote means?
4) Who runs the app? The federal government? Is the work contacted out to a company? Either option is dangerous.
5) The system you describe is very dependent on user history which must be stored in databases somewhere. In the event of a terrorist attack on those databases (assume the data is lost), how does the democracy continue?
6) At what age does someone get to vote?
7) If a bill was written to redistribute Bill Gates’ money to everyone else (via taxation or any other effective means), what would stop it from getting passed? I’d imagine it would be popular enough.
8) Could a company “campaign” to pass a bill limiting/regulating their competition? If the situation was sufficiently complicated, would anyone notice? In a broader sense, how would this democracy interact with capitalism/socialism?
Thanks for your thoughts. Your questions are quite valid but I’m inclined to punt on them, as you’ll see:
For #3, it depends on the group. If a government were to use it, they could provide access via terminals in public libraries, schools, and other government facilities. If a private group were to use it, they’d probably just exclude the poor.
For #4, 6, 7, 8: It’s intended for use in any democratic organization for the equivalent of ordinary legislation and bylaws, but not intended to replace their constitutions or founding documents. If there are some laws/bylaws that the group doesn’t have authority to make or change (like on citizenship/membership), they would need a separate method of striking those down.
For #5, if the data is lost, they start afresh. They’d lose any prediction scores they’d gained, but if voters can repeat their good predictions, the problem is mitigated, and if they can’t repeat their good predictions, they don’t deserve their old scores.
I justify “punting” because the app is intended to be customized by many clubs and organizations. It doesn’t feel like that’s merely handwaving the hard parts, but perhaps it is.