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Hmm I think this would actually be a step backwards... direct democracy is technically and technologically more primitive than representative democracy and far less capable of handling modernity. Witness the quagmire of ballot initiative politics.
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Replying to @vgr
I have been muttering about “radical liberal democracy” for a while now. Surely we can come up with more democratic institutions than infrequent votes for representatives.
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I concur that direct democracy is terrible. But what other democratic institutions are possible? Proportional representation schemes trivial with contemporary computation which were impossible in the 18th century? Legislation by jurors chosen by lot? What else?
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Imagine a world where each of us to has a “personalized policy preference” algorithm: it polls us on our values and also harvests “revealed preferences” from our activities to provide us with our “informed” opinion (or non-opinion) on every policy matter.
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Isn't this an obsession over a basically unimportant detail? The problem is: what are you trying to achieve? To discover "the public will"? Which is defined and measured how? And how will your fancy new technology, whatever it is, prevent the pathologies of today? 1/
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I feel like Switzerland is not being discussed enough. Anecdata include (1) everyone who lives there seems to love it (2) they vote on everything (3) it seems to work (4) no-one knows who is in charge
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