Apolitical People Power
Is it time to gatecrash the gravy train?
From everything I read about modern politics we seem to have the same democratic deficit in almost every modern western so-called democracy.
My own direct experience is in the United Kingdom, but both instinct and widespread discussion informs me that my frustration resonates across Europe, across the USA, across the Commonwealth and across the World.
The problem boils down to misalignment. The aspirations of the general electorate are for peace, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The aspirations of political candidates are for power, control and the pursuit of partisan advantage.
The ancient Athenians had a simple, effective and elegant solution to this. They had effective representative democracy for many centuries without party politics, without lobbyists, without party donors and consequently without the need for “donor pay-back”.
The Athenian solution provided an effective and statistically sound guarantee that both minority groups and majority groups within the electorate were proportionately represented in the legislature and ensured that the aspirations of the legislature were aligned with the aspirations of the electorate.
In place of voting for candidates in a glorified personality contest the legislature in ancient Athens was selected by lot, very much the same as we, in most western democracies, select our juries.
In the modern world, this idea is far from new and a google/wikipedia search for “sortition” or “lotocracy” will reveal many previously posted ideas for alternative forms of democratic state without any political parties. Nowhere however have I been able to find any semblence of a credible plan for bringing such a “perfect” democracy together.
It appears that in the USA there are now significantly more registered independents than there are registered democrats or registered republicans. This is mirrored in the UK and in Europe where the silent majority no longer feel that any political party truly represents their aspirations. At best the silent majority get to vote for the party or candidate that they hope or believe may do the least damage.
What we need, perhaps, in order to evolve from party politics to apolitical people power, is a new Apolitical Peoples Party. It would have a simple constitution that guaranteed to select election candidates by some form of lottery. It would have a simple manifesto that aspired to better and balanced governance. It could, perhaps, capture the imagination of a frustrated electorate and attract a significant share of the apolitical vote.
Alternatively, the activists and/or leadership of one of our existing parties could demonstrate real political inovation and take party and personality politics out of their constition. In the same parallel universe, they could, maybe, teach pigs to fly.
I put this first draft of an idea out for comment and review. I am one of the silent, but frustrated, majority but as yet I don’t know whether I am a lone voice crying in the wilderness or one of many that are ready to take action and vote for radical apolitical change.
