Crazy Idea

[Lee1026]

I just had a crazy idea to fix the Political system in any nation. It will never get implemented, because it is just so crazy, but I think it might work.

Here it goes:
As everyone here should know, moderately sized samples can be used to estimate the entire population with remarkable accuracy. The sample does not have to be big. A 2000 man sample should put us in the range + or - 3% of what the entire population feels like.

So what if we select 2000 Americans, AT RANDOM, to go to Washington DC and act as the Congress, for 1 week? And when that 1 week is up, we RANDOMLY SELECT another 2000 Americans to go there for another week. No more problems with the politicans being bribed by big companies in exchange for campaign funds. No more problems with the population being disconnected with the politicans.

Hence, what we have is more or less direct democracy in action, without all the problems of a direct democracy. Anyone have any comments on this?

[HopliteGlory]

Like the idea of a direct democracy, but a very likely problem would be the weekly change of people and their own needs. We are a large melting pot of people, and therefore a large melting pot of numerous ideas, beliefs, etc.

What's the harm in trying anyway, current government not doing such a hot job......

[Zuwxiv]

The internet and global communication would allow it so that they don't even have to go to DC. They could just stay at home and log on.

[SoggyFrog]

Nothing crazy at all about a valid direct democracy. The only problem is that the folks in power, those with the vices you listed, wouldn't approve

[vanionBB]

This idea sounds sort of like running the government by focus group. The problem is you could never make a difficult decision because who would you hold responsible for the outcome? Part of taking office in any government is being responsible for the successes and failures of your administration.

[SoggyFrog]

All Americans are the ones who benefit from the successes and lose from the failures of their government. (rich) politicians don't necessarily receive a serious impact from their decisions no matter how catastrophic such decisions may be for the rest of the country, because even then they might not receive the full weight of criticism. They certainly won't lose what they own.

[Darth Wong]

None of them would be able to do their homework during their 1-week term of service. Advisors would have a field day telling them what to vote for, because they wouldn't even understand what's going on. They wouldn't even need to pay them off; they can just lie to them and they wouldn't know any better.

Seriously, throw a 200 page bill in front of the average Joe and do you think he's actually going to read through all of that legalistic crap himself?

[Ummon]

Athenians used to pick magistrates/senators (members of the Boulé) randomly. Obviously it didn't work, as this produced non-professional politics on one side, and a habit to corruption on the other.

[the_mango55]

You may get one group who work their whole term to create bill, then the next group simply decide against it instead of passing it.

This would cause the collapse of the nation within 2 months.

[Kanaric]

If they log on they could be hacked, if its chosen at random the government can lie and choose who they like.