In past articles, we have explored Election By Jury (EBJ) - the idea that our political representatives (ie, mayors, governors, senators etc) should be elected by a jury in a courtroom-like setting (see here for more details). Anyone familiar with the sortition movement would notice that this idea has many parallels to a similar idea … Continue reading Election By Jury vs Citizen Assemblies
For years, I labored under the illusion that I was the first to advocate for Election By Jury - at least in the modern era. Imagine my delight when I discovered that H.G. Wells had championed the same idea and made the exact same arguments an entire century before me. To anyone who (understandably) doesn't … Continue reading Election By Jury – by H.G. Wells
It’s hard to imagine a more incompetent group of people than literally everyone involved in the latest election season. Let’s go down the list. Donald Trump After losing a closely fought election in 2020, the smart thing to do would have been to concede gracefully and plot a comeback for the next election season. If … Continue reading 2024 American Presidential Election – A Comedy of Errors
Using violence to achieve political goals violates the very foundations of any democracy. We should all denounce political violence of all forms. This includes the assassination attempt on Trump in the past week. We have elections for a reason - no one should ever attempt to subvert the electoral process by assassinating a politician they … Continue reading Donald Trump – Both Victim and Perpetrator of Political Violence
Imagine if you were accused of murder, and facing life in prison. Who would you want deciding your fate? A jury of randomly selected citizens, who have spent weeks sitting in a moderated courtroom, listening to all evidence and testimony presented by both sides? Or a public referendum where every single person in your state … Continue reading Election by Jury – Ten Years On
Light red cells indicate elections where the party's representation in Congress is significantly less than its share of the popular vote. Bright green cells indicate elections where the loser of the popular vote ends up winning control of Congress. Senate elections are grouped into 3x blocks, since the entire senate goes up for election over … Continue reading Congress v. Popular Vote
Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I never shrink away from controversial opinions and unusual ideas. Not least of which is my belief that we should conduct elections using randomly selected juries in a court of law, not mass voting. When I tell people of this idea, I’m usually met with blank faces … Continue reading Reasons to Replace the Popular Vote
Source I read today a very thought-provoking piece by Yuval Harari, a historian and philosopher. “You can vote but you can’t choose what is true.” A paraphrased summary of his thesis: Elections are awful ways of determining what is true. For that, we need to turn to experts and institutions, not popularity contests. However, elections … Continue reading We Don’t Need Elections to Figure Out What People Want
In the wake of the 2008 crisis came the realization that our financial system is teetering on the brink, at the mercy of banks that are too big to fail. A lesson that’s hardly surprising to Software engineers who have known for decades that "God Objects", entities that are far too widely encompassing, produce intractable … Continue reading Too Big To Fail: A Call for States’ Rights
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch" - Ben Franklin “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” - John Adams Earlier, I had written about the flaws inherent to democracy and … Continue reading The Difference Between Direct and Representative Democracy
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch" - Ben Franklin “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” - John Adams Today, I'll be making the same argument that the founding fathers did; that … Continue reading It’s Time to Reinvent Democracy
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