[EM] Arrow's axioms & an alternative to elections

[Ernest Prabhakar]

Hi Philippe,

On Mar 9, 2004, at 6:18 PM, Philippe Errembault wrote:
> hmmmm... Now that I re-read the text, I realise that your problem 
> about decision
> taking and collapsing alternatives, probably came from here:

Actually, it was along the lines of 'forcing linear' decisions, by 
analogy with the way that quantum states evolve smoothly over time 
until a measurement is made.   That is, human individuals (and 
societies) are rarely in coherent states -- being a mass of conflicting 
and inconsistent thoughts and desires -- but at various points in times 
we still need to resolve them into decisions.   You sounded like you 
are trying to avoid the need for such decisions, but perhaps that was 
an overstatement on my part.

Anyway, I've probably confused myself along with everyone else, so I'll 
drop that line of thought....

>  My proposition was
> mostly intended for people representation, mostly at parlementary 
> level.
> Executive decisions are not taken at that level... As you said, if we 
> want a leadership,
> we probably will need another kind of process for executive decisions.

Okay, if we're talking about legislatures, then perhaps I could 
interpret your proposal as allowing dynamic self-assembling 'districts' 
of interest which in turn form smoothly varying hierarchies of decision 
making.  WIth various actual legislative decisions made on different 
levels at varying timescales, rather than the two-tier (representatives 
vs. full referendum) that we tend to have now.

It certainly offers an interesting alternative to geographical 
districting and periodic elections, and so would perhaps appeal to 
those who like Proportional Representation.

The biggest problem I see is, who gets to define the rules for what 
gets decided at which level?  If the authority for that is too 
dispersed, you get a logjam.  If too centralized, you risk devaluing 
certain levels which would seemingly defeat the whole purpose of the 
arrangement.

-- Ernie P.