[EM] Usefol Peoxies

[Dave Ketchum]

"James Green-Armytage" <jarmyta at antioch-college.edu> offers an interesting 
proposal at:
http://fc.antioch.edu/~jarmyta@antioch-college.edu/voting_methods/proxy.htm

I quote a bit, and then offer alternate thoughts:

"A Proposal for Direct Democracy Based on a Non-Binding Proxy System

"by James Green-Armytage

"Although democracy seems severely incomplete when it is limited to the 
selection of representatives, it is challenging to apply direct democracy 
on a large scale. It is difficult to imagine that every citizen of a large 
nation would be able to come to a fully informed decision on every piece 
of public policy that would make it to a legislature. Or, if they were 
able to do so, it is hard to imagine that they would have time to do much 
else. If everyone voted whether they were well-informed or not, then 
public decisions may become somewhat arbitrary and highly vulnerable to 
manipulation by expensive public relations campaigns. If those who lacked 
the time to become fully informed refrained from voting, the system would 
become an effectively discriminatory one.

             "One possible way to cope with this problem is to develop a 
proxy system. The basic idea of this is that voters have the option of 
designating a proxy to carry the weight of their vote in deciding an 
issue. Voters should be able to change their proxies at will, and there 
should be no minimum threshold of votes needed for anyone to serve as a 
proxy. The value of a proxy system is that even if people do not have time 
to become fully educated on the issues, then they may know of someone who 
does, someone with whom they share common values and beliefs.

"Proxies of proxies

             "If I indicate someone as my proxy, and she indicates someone 
as her proxy, then the weight of my vote will be passed along to her 
proxy. And perhaps to her proxy's proxy, and so on. This will prevent 
votes from being wasted, and allow the accumulation of votes to people who 
are trusted by people who are in turn trusted by others.

"Issue-specific proxies

             "On any given issue I also have the option of indicating a 
proxy or list of proxies different from my standing list, just to receive 
the weight of my vote for that one issue. One reason this might be good is 
that it would allow voters to indicate as proxies people who are 
knowledgeable in the field that a specific issue relates to. For example, 
if the issue is relevant to ecology, then a voter might indicate an 
ecologist as their proxy for that issue, or a staff member at an NGO that 
deals with the environment. Or, rather than being a matter of a field of 
study, a voter may delegate his vote to someone whom he knows has educated 
themselves well about that issue in particular. For example, if the issue 
is choosing between different versions of a trade bill and the voter knows 
someone who has read all of the different versions personally. Even if 
most voters would not know such a person, their proxies and their proxies' 
proxies might."
-------------------------------------------------------

I read elsewhere of doing things to the Electoral College - NOT as part of 
this proposal.

Do not have the whole country dive in at once.  Any legislative body, such 
as a city council or state legislature, can adopt this proxy activity.

Elect members to the body as previously, but each member has voting power per:
      Number of registered voters in their district that have not signed 
proxies.  In case of PR or other complications that have more than one 
legislator per district, share somehow - such as based on vote counts.
      PLUS number of proxies awarded to them by registered voters in the 
city or whatever - directly or indirectly.

DO NOT have to be elected to hold and vote proxies as if a member of the 
body, but must be qualified to be elected.  Probably some minimum proxy 
count to get noticed this much.

DO NOT have to be elected to act as a full member of the body - perhaps 
half as many proxies as average newly elected member starts with; perhaps 
as many members as were elected, starting with those with most proxies. 
Note that an elected member who is unpopular enough can thus get locked 
out of debate.
      A thought for US House:  They have more members than can usefully 
debate - perhaps the one member from each state with the most proxies plus 
the 150 other members with the most proxies (remember that I, from NY, 
could assign my proxy to someone I trust in CA).

Limit on number of proxies one person can hold?  Dangerous to let one 
person hold a meeting in a phone booth, so have a limit - perhaps 1/3 of 
total body vote.

Separate proxy lists for special problems?  Yes, but do not overdo it. 
Such a list would start with the elected members, and take no action until 
voters had time to sign proxies.
------------------------------------

Where do I think I got to?

A manageable government unit can choose to do this.

If the voters do not get excited, current structure still works.

Greens, or other groups, unable to elect members via the district 
structure, can get together and appoint a member or members via proxies.

Difficult problems, such as drug laws, can be assigned to voter-controlled 
committees.
-- 
  davek at clarityconnect.com    people.clarityconnect.com/webpages3/davek
  Dave Ketchum   108 Halstead Ave, Owego, NY  13827-1708   607-687-5026
            Do to no one what you would not want done to you.
                  If you want peace, work for justice.