What Is Wrong With Democracy?

The Wicked And The Authoritarians Took Over

Over time power hungry and meddling authoritarians have usurped and expanded government power.

Or are our elected representatives really a representative reflection of our society?

Individual Liberty Is Inconsolably Suffering

Democracy is the road to serfdom and the slow decline of individual liberty and responsibility.

Well Known For A Long Time

This has been well described in the past by Anti Federalists, Alexis de Tocqueville, or Friedrich Hayek and, I am sure, others.

Time For Reform

I have previously suggested to implement SMALL and limited government here, here, here, and here.

Why do we not elect our representatives by random choice? I blogged about this option here and here.

What, I believe, I have not said earlier, is to expand e.g. the U.S. Congress to increase the number of members than currently. I believe, the e.g. Anti Federalists were already arguing that there were too few representatives per capita.

Random Selection Of Legislators And Executives

Urgent Reform Of Democracy

I would strongly argue that Western democracy has entered an era of serious crisis. I have previously blogged about that subject here, here, and here.

Previously, I have already suggested we ought to select all or a majority of our elected representatives (legislators, executives), but also judges and public service employees by random selection of individuals from the general population.

Refined Approach

For each representative (legislator, executive) we randomly choose three individuals from the entire population of adults. Only the best one third of the so chosen will become our representatives.

All randomly chosen individuals will be trained and tested for an appropriate period of time (e.g. two years)  to determine their qualification and suitability for the job.

Urgent Reform Of Copyrights

Prologue

I have previously blogged about intellectual property rights here, here, and here. My opinion is to start over. Abolish any intellectual property rights going forward, preserve existing ones until they expire. This should be a worthwhile experiment to accelerate human progress.

Copyright Protections Are Way Too Long

“In most of the world, the default length of copyright is the life of the author plus either 50 or 70 years.” (Wikipedia). Thus, if an author at the age of 15 wrote something it would be protected for up to 85 years!

Fair use does not compensate for that.

Consequences

You can not read a book or listen to music online in digital form before that copyright has expired. Thus many recent works are only available through purchase (e.g. if they are still in print) or via old fashioned libraries.

Research and utilizing these works in new and different ways is seriously hampered! Our gain of knowledge is seriously encumbered! The hurdles are too high!

Socrates

This important philosopher lived well before any intellectual property rights were defined (he died in 399 BC). Good for us!

He left no written works. Only through few of his students, e.g. Plato and Xenophon, was his wisdom conveyed to us because Plato wrote down what he remembered or what he liked. Well, Socrates had three sons. Had these sons or even Socrates enforced copyrights as we know them, perhaps his wisdom would have been lost. This is, of course, highly speculative and one can also apply the argument to achieve the opposite result.

A Service Not A Property Right

I strongly believe, the authorship of a literary or musical work is more like a service than a property right. Not much different than when a hairdresser cuts your hair perhaps in a unique way by the hairdresser’s intuition or experience.

Of course, one can argue that mental work and ingenuity are different from more physical work, but are they so different that they deserve such extraordinary protections? Why should not a plumber have his little personal trick he conceived protected in a similar way by which the plumber fixes a certain problem more efficient than others?

Many literary works are personal or trivial, such as e.g. autobiographies or pulp magazines or many prose narratives. Pop music is often not much different.

Novel ideas or observations etc. often spring not from a single mind. Many times, they are the product of human collaboration or generations of humans. Just because one person writes it down first does not justify such extensive protections.

Condemned To Poverty

One may object that so many artists have died in poverty and that intellectual property rights help to prevent poverty of authors or musicians. Or similar, so many great artists had to work full time in a different capacity, because their artistic work would not cover their cost of living.

First, I would suggest that e.g. publishers of music, literature etc. have been perhaps the greatest beneficiaries of the system not the author.

Authors can make money in different ways, e.g. merchandising, live presentations, frequent production of new works etc. To be successful you have to be enterprising like any other business owner.

Proposal For Profound Reforms Of Western Big Government Democracies

Introduction

As I mentioned before it is sometimes appropriate to take the tabula rasa approach meaning to start with a clean slate.

Governments of Western democracies have become way too big and intrusive over the past hundred years or so, in particular in the US. Individual liberty and responsibility have become hollow. A substantial correction is overdue.

A Brief Definition Of Public Service

Public service as defined here is to include everyone including elected representatives, first responders (police officers, firefighters, etc.), judges, and civil servants paid primarily by tax payers for their service. As an aside, fire fighting could potentially be privatized.

Election By Random Drawing Of Everyone In Public Service

This might be too radical a proposal. However, I would argue that the democratic principle of one man, one vote is a dead end road. But if jurors are randomly drawn for jury duty in our courts of justice why not everyone who works in public service. This would certainly remove much of the ridiculous partisanship we have observed for decades.

This would improve the understanding that everyone, not only those who claim they have a particular vocation for public service, has the responsibility to serve the public. Public service by the people, for the people, and of the people.

Finally, elected representatives would be a representative sample of the population. E.g. Gerrymandering would be a relique of the past.

Just imagine if judges were randomly drawn. Perhaps, finally more common sense instead of lofty or construed legal principals would prevail in the court system.

A randomly chosen candidate should pass a qualification/aptitude test. Once the candidate has passed this test, he or she will be trained thoroughly for the job.

We may need three heads of government (e.g. three US presidents) or three judges for every court.

Strict Term Limits For Everyone In Public Service

Everybody who works in public service should be term limited. No exception!

Public service should not be a live time occupation or sinecure. Overall, I believe such a rotation of public servants would be beneficial compared to the status quo.

No Health Care For Everyone In Public Service

Everyone in public service should be adequately compensated so they can buy health services or insurance on the free markets. Living by example.

No Pensions For Everyone In Public Service

Everyone in public service should be adequately compensated so they can buy services or products or save for their retirement on the free markets. Living by example.

Epilog

This is just a taste!