Karteikarten
APPENDIX: A PROPOSAL FOR INSTANT DIRECT DEMOCRACY
Karten in diesem Stapel (15)
- 1What remark does Wolff makes about the view of direct democracy?that the impossibility of it is generally taken for granted in contemporary discussions of democratic theory, and it is accounted an unpleasantly utopian aspect of the philosophy of Rousseau
- 2However, what does Wolff claim?that actually the obstacles to direct democracy are merely technical, and we may therefore suppose that in this day of planned technological progress it is possible to solve them
- 3What does Wolff propose in order to overcome the obstacles to direct democracy?That a system of in-the-home voting machines be set up. In each dwelling, a device would be attached to the television set which would electronically record votes and transmit them to a computer in Washington
- 4What about those homes without sets?they would be supplied by a federal subsidy
- 5Would this not end up being very expensive?In practise, no, because only the poor and the very intelligent lack sets at present.e
- 6how would fraudulent voting be avoided?the device could be rigged to record thumbprints, so each person would be able to vote only once, as the computer would automatically reject a duplicate vote
- 7what would be the exact process of voting?Each evening, at the time which is now devoted to news programmes, there would be a nationwide all-stations show devoted to debate on issues before the nation. Whatever bills were before the congress would be debated by representatives of alternative points of view. There would be background briefings on technically complex questions, as well as formal debates, question periods, and so forth. Committees of experts would be commissioned to gather data, make reconmmendations for new measures, and do the work of drafting legislations. One could institute the position of public dissenter in order to guarantee that dissident and unusual points of view were heard. Each Friday, after a week of debate and discussion, a voting session would be held. The measures would be put to the public one by one and the nation would record its preference instantaneously by means of machines.
- 8What about people who could not be in their seats during the voting?special arrangements might have to be made.
- 9How would decisions be arrived at?simple majority rule, as is now the case in the congress
- 10In what ways does Wolff admit the process is not perfect?because there is a great difference between the passive role of listener in a debate and the active role of participant.
- 11What would be the major objection that would be immediately raised, particularly by American political scientists?that it would be too democratic: anarchy and chaos would prevail. The feckless masses, swung hither and yon by the winds of opinion, would quickly reduce the great, slow-moving stable government of the US to disoranized shambles. Bills would be passed or unpassed with the same casual irresponsibility which now governs the length of a hemline or the popularity of beer. Gone would be the restraining hand of wisdom, knowledge, tradition and experience
- 12what is Wolff's response to such an objection?he purports that the likelihood of responses of this sort indicates the shallowness of most modern belief in democracy. The initial response to a system of instant direct democracy would be chaotic, but, very quickly men would learn that their votes make a difference in the world: an immediate, visible difference. Wolff says there is nothing which brings on a sense of responsibility so fast as that awareness
- 13What does he say America would see?an invigorating and immediate rise in interest in politics, and it would be hardly neccesary to launch expensive and frustrating campaigns to get out the vote: politics would be on the lips of every man, woman, and child, day after day.
- 14As interest rose, what demand would become present?A demand for more and better sources of news
- 15What would it be like under a system of genuine democracy?the voice of the many would drown out those of the few. The poor, the uneducated, the frigtened who today are cared for by the state on ocassion but never included in the process of government would weigh, man for man, as heavily as the rich, influential and well-connected
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- Karteikarten am APPENDIX: A PROPOSAL FOR INSTANT DIRECT DEMOCRACY, erstellt von Phoebe Malone am 04/06/2019.
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