two kinds of direct democracy (was Re: Parliamentary vs Presiden

[Steve Eppley]

Mike O wrote:
-snip-
>I prefer direct democracy, and that very likely would be easier to
>get than Parliamentary govt, or even PR. Especially considering the
>stong anti-politician sentiment of the public. 
-snip-

I'm not so sure it would be easier to get dd, which at the moment
would seem like a radical change.  Maybe after some years of
small-scale experimentation?

I wouldn't like the kind of dd which "disenfranchises" the citizens 
who are too busy to vote often.  I refer to this kind as "you snooze, 
you lose" direct democracy.

But it's possible to design dd so that each citizen can maintain a
sorted list of proxies (with him/herself implied at the top), so that
the citizen's voting weight would transfer to his/her highest ranked
proxy who didn't fail to vote.  (Maybe even allow splitting of weight
among equally-ranked proxies.)  The proxies could be any citizens,
including one's family and friends.  I think this would provide the
best aspects of dd and representative government. 

---Steve     (Steve Eppley    seppley at alumni.caltech.edu)