[EM] language/framing quibble

Kristofer Munsterhjelm km-elmet at broadpark.no
Tue Mar 3 14:07:28 PST 2009


Dave Ketchum wrote:
> So, you do not like the word "campaign".
> 
> Suppose I take an interest in becoming mayor of Owego.
> 
> This will require my neighbors learning this, and something of what I 
> might do as mayor.
> 
> What shall we call this getting the word out, if not campaigning?
> 
> Because parties are usually involved, those of us sharing thought will 
> call ourselves the "People's Party", though it does nothing outside our 
> village.
> 
> My neighbors must learn this to be able to vote for me.

I think his point is that by using other methods, you may get around 
this apparent necessity. For instance, Owego might pick a 
"Representative House" by lot (Athenian model) and that House elects the 
mayor in a parliamentary fashion; or it might use a recursive selection 
process where you convince a small council you're the best among them to 
stand, then a small council made up of the suceeding candidates of the 
previous councils, and so on up to mayor. In both cases, you "get the 
word out" to a subset of the people - in the former, to the random 
assembly, and in the latter, to the intersection of councils that you 
end up being a part of.


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