There is a problem with democracy: over time, people choose the most corrupt, lazy and inefficient people in the country to be rulers. Here’s how it works: people of good character who are skilled in their work are busy: they are working. They have no time to waste in the uncertain business of getting elected. Beggars and swindlers end up getting elected for specious reasons. Once in government, they monopolise communication in the country, so that the most outrageous liars and storytellers can entrench themselves in power: they can move the national debate from real issues to fantasies that they make up – and cover the wise in the the foolish noise of their choice. As Douglas Adams pointed out, “Anyone who is capable of getting themselves elected President should by no means be allowed to hold the office.”
I have a solution: election by lot. It would work something like jury duty, but with statistics that do not lie instead of lawyers that do.
Every year, 1 fifth of the representatives would be retired (leaving 80% to maintain continuity). Replacements would be chosen. To elect a representative, the election would run like this:
- The voter’s roll would be numbered, from 0 to the number of eligible voters (less 1). The one thing they will not be doing is voting. Maybe we can tweak it a little, and make it only taxpayers, but that may unnecessarily exclude people that do not have means.
- Each political party can nominate a a number of a person on the voters roll. Don’t worry: they won’t get their number.
- To the sum of the numbers given by the political parties the electoral officer publicly adds a random number to the choices of all of the parties, and take the remainder after dividing by the number of voters. This is our representative: some random dude. Poor bloke. We took everyone’s numbers, we added them together, we added our own random number, and he’s toast. We’ll need a few spares too.
The person that is nominated, besides being alive, and of proper age, must serve in government. He has no choice (well, almost). As this task will take him away from his day job, the governing authority will supply and pay for as many people as it takes to fill his place: to mow his field, to run his business, take care of her children, weed his garden, etc. He can refuse this offer and accept compensation instead, equal to his personal income plus some generous percentage.
There will be some people who simply cannot leave their work, or who don’t particularly care for working in government. These people must be fined some significant percentage of their annual income – some powerful disincentive to turning down the responsibility without proper reason. Also, if they wish to retire from office early (e.g. before 2 years), they must pay the fine. If someone is chosen who is ineligible, the fine can be waived (e.g. if they are the accused in a long running criminal case).
What happens if we elect a bunch of criminals and gangsters to office? Well, this is hardly different from what we have now, except that there is the advantage that when they start in office, they are not experienced in political subterfuge.
Is it stupid? Maybe, but so what! It solves so many problems:
- Representation: people who are excluded can be represented
- A lying politician says he will plunder the coffers of the government, and give to the majority. If he’s elected by lot, he has nothing to lie about.
- The election is done and dusted, and the loser in power declares himself to be the winner (it happens all the time in Africa, these days). If he’s elected by lot, there is really no question about the process. It is simple: he was on the voter’s roll, and he was not the one chosen.
- A political party becomes corrupt and doles out favours to office bearers and nephews, or those that can throw chairs best. They rotate term limits between the most corrupt. If their members are elected by lot, they can lobby the authorities just like anyone else.
When I am king, I will implement this system. It will be easy: we start with a small proportion chosen by lot, and we expand it to be the majority (90%). The last 10% is to throw a bone to the political parties, who do occasionally have worthwhile ideas. The only sticky bit is getting myself out of power and leaving the system in place. How long will that take? I might have to be king for a while …
