[EM] Conceiving a Democratic Electoral Process

[Fred Gohlke]

Good Morning, Juho

re: "You seem to assume that "party values" are always bad."

I've explained this.  Partisanship is an essential part of society. 
However, we must prevent parties from inflicting their views on the 
electorate.  Their role must always be to persuade, never to impose. 
Therein lies the difficulty of conceiving a democratic electoral method; 
we must devise a method that welcomes parties but prevents their control 
of government.


re: "... although parties may often have a negative impact on
      candidate selection, there are also aspects that may speak
      in favour of some control in the creation of the candidate
      list."

To the extent you mean the party leaders have a right to control the 
choice of candidates, I disagree.


re: "Even if we would find some ingenious new system, I hope that
      all would not use it but there would still be alternative
      approaches for comparison and to seek further improvements."

The development of democracy is an evolutionary process.  It happens in 
fits and starts and none of them are final.


re: "I think we can't get fully rid of our represenattives making
      decisions for us in a representative democracy. We must trust
      some people to make the decisions."

Of course!  That's why we elect them.  The problem we are addressing is 
that we are only allowed to vote for people who are committed to make 
decisions for the benefit of their party rather than the benefit of the 
people.  That's wrong.


re: "(Here's btw one possible approach that allows anyone to run.
      There will be a primary elecion at every municipality or
      other small area (common to all voters of that area). Anyone
      can nominate himself as a candiate. The winners will be
      candidates at the next election of a wider area. And the
      winners of those electons will be candiates of the final
      national election. Voters are the same at all levels, just
      grouped into smaller or larger groups. There will be few
      weeks time between the different level elections to reserve
      time for the voters to learn the candidates and their
      opinions.)

The voters can only learn what the candidates tell them, they have no 
means of independent verification.  They cannot examine each of the 
candidates carefully to determine their integrity and suitability for 
public office.  However, if the candidates, advancing as you describe, 
must seek election by persuading the other candidates to elect them, we 
can be sure each of them will do two things:

1) They'll make sure no-one can challenge their integrity. and

2) they'll examine the other candidates, their competitors,
    carefully, looking for ways to "shoot-'em-down".  They will
    not be easily deceived.


re: "I find many different kind of systems useful and potential
      good solutions for some societies."

How about sticking with the leading societies, the ones that have, so 
far, set the pace for democracy (however imperfectly)?

Fred