[EM] Practical Democracy (and primary rule making) with Votorola

[Fred Gohlke]

Good Afternoon, Michael

re: "Should these people be allowed to shift their votes?  You
      asked specifically about the possibility of *guiding* those
      who are already elected."

I don't want to waffle, but I can't give you a categorical response to 
your question because it presumes an infrastructure different from the 
one I had in mind.  The circumstances you describe are, essentially, an 
implementation of direct democracy.  That does not make it bad.  In 
fact, it might be quite good, but I think it goes beyond representative 
democracy and the heart of my proposal is to harness human nature to the 
task of improving the quality of the people who represent us in our 
government.

When I spoke of 'guiding' our representatives, I was thinking in terms 
of a means by which an elected official's constituents could communicate 
their opinions and attitudes.  More, I suppose, like letters to the 
editor than voting.  It's true that I also envisioned the possibility of 
referendum and recall ... which would certainly involve voting ... but I 
don't favor carrying that capability to every nitty-gritty detail of 
government.

If one's goal is direct democracy, your suggestion is exemplary 
(although I think it might be cumbersome in practice and would 
effectively restrict participation to those who express themselves well 
in writing).


re: "You were concerned about manipulation.  Do you still think
      the process can be manipulated?  In the context of these
      scenarios, what form would the manipulation take?"

In the context of the scenarios you described, I'm hesitant to offer an 
opinion.  Even though I can imagine such silliness as an adjacent 
homeowner inveighing against the proposal because she doesn't want sand 
blowing onto her dinner table, I really don't think manipulation would 
be a serious problem in the scenarios you described.  However, when we 
are talking about elevating candidates for public office by the 
Practical Democracy method, when the higher levels are reached, the 
likelihood that vested interests would conduct campaigns to get voters 
to switch their votes is immense.

Were these two comments responsive to your questions?  I've had a major 
influx of family members over the past few days, here to help celebrate 
my impending 80th birthday, and I fear my focus is not all it could be.

On another topic, I've been a member of World-Wide-Democracy.net (WDDM) 
for a few years, but have not been active for about two years.  It 
occurs to me that your work might be of great interest to the people at 
that site.  You can find them at:

http://www.world-wide-democracy.net/Wiki/WddmWikiMain

Fred Gohlke