As I mentioned yesterday I think the next step in democracy is to move to a lottery system. In reality most government work is done by the administration who prepare options and carry out the decisions. The politicians are there to arbitrate between options and to avoid the dangers of technocratic government. The problem is that even the most well intentioned politicians seem to spend most of their time thinking about getting reelected. So I would like to suggest a government based on the following principles:
- All "political" representatives will be selected by lottery
- All citizens over 18 will be eligible for the lottery
- Citizens can only serve one 4 year term in their lifetime
- Participation in the lottery is not compulsory (you can ask to be removed)
- The national assembly will comprise 500 members
- The senate will comprise 5-10 members from each region
- There will be no head of state or prime minister
- The government will be composed of 25 members selected from the 2 chambers
- Government members will be reselected every 2 years
- Individual government members can be revoked by a vote of either chamber
- This system to be implemented at all levels of government
- Remuneration would be set at the same level as top civil servants
By removing the need to be elected and the possibility of serving more than one term "elected" officials would be more likely to focus on making sensible decisions.
One thing is for sure the assembly would be much more representative. The law of probabilities would guarantee that a lottery system would result in a much more balanced chamber in terms of gender, profession, age, ethnic origin, class or intelligence.
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