h a l f b a k e r yNow, More Pleasing Odor!
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Instead of voting for only representatives, senators, and the president, citizens vote directly on some federal matters. Once a year 10 issues are put to a vote of the people. Matters such as abortion, environmental policy, energy policy, trade policy, etc... would still be crafted by representatives.
How many proposals would voters have to choose from? Would proposals come down to a runoff? How to decide which issues are put to direct citizen vote? We would have greater voter turnout. Corporations would lobby the electorate more and politicians less.
Referenda and Plebiscites
http://www.aceproje...glish/es/esc01a.htm
A brief discussion paper [PeterSilly, Aug 16 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]
[link]
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This is Baked, at least in principle: many US states and other countries offer referenda to their voters, either at election time or as stand-alone events. Unless there's some special magic in the number 10 I am missing. |
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Very, very baked, especially in Switzerland, a country renowned for having referenda on everything (see link within link!). Paradoxically, the Swiss people I know hate them, because they're always having to vote on something. While voting in Swiss referenda is mandatory, the actual turnout is steadily falling. |
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There is a fundamental problem with voting by the public on multiple issues: there is no constraint against voting for incompatible desires. People will vote for higher services but lower taxes. Governments need to at least make a show of consistency. |
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But a vote for higher services would include a vote for higher taxes. I like that. At least I'd get to see where my tax dollars go. |
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[pfp] - and people don't already do this? "I think green is a really good idea and we should try to reduce the traffic on the roads. Just don't put up the price of petrol or introduce road charging." |
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In the UK the Conservative party won 4 successive general elections on precisely the policy you mention - we will improve services and cut taxes. The fact that they did neither didn't affect people voting for them, until 1997 when they got booted out in rather impressive style, although not as impressive in Canada. |
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Conservative parties are boring. |
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