[EM] Cheering for simplicity

[Alex Small]

Dave Ketchum said:
> If I really wanted to broaden the field, I might get into ways for the
> people being represented to control who got to be officials, and
> when officials got replaced, WITHOUT doing elections.

Here's a simple scheme along those lines.  Surely it can be improved, and
as set forth it's only for legislatures, but it's a way to proceed.

Each eligible voter has one vote.  At any time he can give it to any
representative or would-be representative that he wishes to.  As long as a
representative has a certain threshold of support he retains his seat in
the legislature.

Proportionality is achieved because as soon as a group gets enough people
on board to elect one representative, it will start recruiting voters for
another.  Groups will add representatives until they've maxed-out.

Recall is simple:  If enough voters withdraw support from one
representative and transfer it to another the representative loses his
office.  Maybe there could be a grace period, so that he has a certain
interval of time to regain support before losing office.  But that's a
detail.


As I think of it, here's one of many possible embellishments:  Give each
person TWO votes, which must be given to two different representatives or
aspiring representatives.  A person may be reluctant to relinquish
representation temporarily by transfering votes to somebody else who has
not yet attained a quota.  People may be more willing to do so if they
have two votes.  Or, let people make provisional transfers:  Let people
indicate that they're willing to transfer a vote to candidate X, but only
if enough other people are also willing to do so.

Anyway, there are all sorts of ways to flesh out this framework.  I don't
present it as a finished plan, just as a starting point.  Of course, these
direct representation schemes have even less chance of implementation than
the most complicated Condorcet-IRV-Approval hybrids that we might devise. 
But they're fun to contemplate, and they may find application in private
organizations.



Alex