/lit/ - Literature

>>16414803
Post some quotes or passages

>>16414807
>We know that an unfortunate side effect of democracy is that it incentivizes citizens to be ignorant, irrational, tribalistic, and to not use their votes in very serious ways. So this is an attempt to correct for that pathology while keeping what’s good about a democratic system.

>We have to ask ourselves what we think government is actually for. Some people think it has the value a painting has, which is to say that it’s symbolic. In that view, you might think, “We should have democracy because it’s a way of civilizing and expressing the idea that all of us have equal value.”

>There’s another way of looking at government, which is that it’s a tool, like a hammer, and the purpose of politics is to generate just and good outcomes, to generate efficiency and stability, and to avoid mistreating people. So if you think government is for that purpose, and I do, then you have to wonder if we should pick the form of government that best delivers the goods, whatever that might be.

>>16414822
>Here’s what I propose we do: Everyone can vote, even children. No one gets excluded. But when you vote, you do three things.

>First, you tell us what you want. You cast your vote for a politician, or for a party, or you take a position on a referendum, whatever it might be. Second, you tell us who you are. We get your demographic information, which is anonymously coded, because that stuff affects how you vote and what you support.

>And the third thing you do is take a quiz of very basic political knowledge. When we have those three bits of information, we can then statistically estimate what the public would have wanted if it was fully informed.

>Under this system, it’s not really the case that you have more power than I do. We can’t really point to any individual and say you were excluded, or your vote counted for more. The idea is to gauge what the public would actually want if it had all the information it needed.

>>16414822
Interesting. Seems sensible, especially the last paragraph. I would need more info on the first paragraph. Why would democracy 'incentivize' people to be ignorant, more than say some undemocratic totalitarian government?

>>16414822
>>16414827
This is why economists shouldn't do political philosophy.

>>16414803
Pretty good, but mostly as a reactionary against socialists