Saturday, April 23, 2011

Politics - Democracy

Direct democracy: Vox populi or hoi polloi? | The Economist

Everyone voting on everything never seemed like a good idea to me. There are other examples of unworkable models of democracy: Florence during the reign of the Medici's, where the signoria were not in power for long enough to make any real changes (no doubt part of the Medici plan).

I think that the EU model is being overlooked, and I believe - despite some hopeless examples of inefficiency and bureaucracy - it contains a basis for a future model. Three things in particular:
- it encourages cultural uniqueness while downplaying nationalism
- it values social economic balance (over work only)
- it is experimenting with separating the work of the various commissions from direct popular vote

Popular mandates are, by and large, short-term in their benefits. This is a huge problem for democracy as we move forward.



No comments: