[EM] Election methods in student government...

[Abd ul-Rahman Lomax]

At 10:43 AM 12/25/2006, Kevin Venzke wrote:
>--- Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <abd at lomaxdesign.com> a écrit :
> > The
> > arguments allowing direct democracy mostly assume that most people
> > won't be qualified to vote, i.e., won't have put in the time to
> > understand the issues, etc. It's actually antidemocratic nonsense;
> > what really happens is that if people don't feel qualified to vote, they
> > don't.
>
>I doubt that people who are concerned that "most people won't be
>qualified to vote" would be surprised or relieved to know that when
>"people don't feel qualified to vote, they don't."
>
>When we require that people obtain a license in order to drive, this
>isn't out of fear of those who *know* they shouldn't be at the wheel.

I'm not addressing the fear of the antidemocrats. 
My position is that the person most qualified to 
decide if a voter is sufficiently qualified is the voter himself or herself.

When voters have an option to vote directly or to 
leave it to a representative whom they have 
chosen, my opinion is that most voters will, most 
of the time, decide that their representative is 
not only more qualified, it saves them time to 
simply allow the representative's vote to stand.

My comments must be understood in that context.

Present conditions don't usually give voters that 
choice. They either don't vote at all --  a 
likely response if they feel utterly unqualified 
-- or they vote even if they are not confident 
about their qualification because at least, 
perhaps, if they express their unqualified 
opinion, it may, on the average, nudge the result 
toward a better one. This may even work sometimes.