That’s right, folks, we are less than 100 days away from November 2nd. As the date approaches I’ll be writing about topics and candidates that catch my eye, but today I’m picking a different type of topic and one that I hope you will join in on – just a few adjustments I wish would be implemented that would make systemic changes in our government.
These suggestions come from the Athens during its Golden Age as a democracy. I’m not enamored of every, or even most, methods they had for governing themselves, but they did have a few stunningly fabulous ideas that worked well.
Holding office by lottery – The Council of 500, an assembly meant to represent the citizens through preliminary debate, was chosen once a year by lottery from all citizens irrespective of wealth or class. It may seem a bit odd to do this, but the reasons for it are as needed today as they were in 487BCE. It reduced the chances of corruption or undue influence brought to bear on governmental officials, it spread both the benefits and responsibilities of active citizenship throughout the population, and it ensured a true voice of the people in government.
We don’t have a Council of 500, but we do have 435 Congresspersons elected to the House of Representatives every two years. Using a lottery system of all registered voters to appoint Congresspersons to the House for a two year term would bring the same benefits as it brought to Athens – lessening corruption, encouraging active participation in government, more citizens would have first hand experience in how laws are created and would see their effects, but the greatest benefit would be in representation. The House, in our form of government, was designed to more closely represent the voice and will of the citizens. That’s in theory. In practice, the House is filled with people who are mostly male, white, Protestant, belong to the upper class, and started out as attorneys. Is that representative of our citizenry? Do they understand the desires, needs, and daily experiences of the average person, let alone a non-average person? A lottery would immediately change the make up of the House to look much more like the population of the USA instead of a country club in Boston.
A concern that people may have is that Congress would be filled with “unqualified” persons and that could lead to ruin. After all we want more intelligent and knowledgeable people than us making decisions for us. Falling for that line of thinking is what has reimposed a ruling class on the USA. One usually based more on wealth than on family lines, created by such false criteria as an Ivy league education and the patronage system. We have allowed ourselves to become convinced, through the machinations of this same ruling class, that we just aren’t smart enough to govern ourselves and we need to be guided by them. This is a lie. Who knows better than a small business owner what is needed for small business to thrive? Who knows better than a minority what is happening in their communities and the challenges they face? Who knows better than a college student how difficult it is to get your degree? We all have experiences and ideas that are critical to the success of our country. Even looking on the negative side, how could Congresspersons chosen by lottery do worse than our present elected officials?
I wouldn’t mind seeing a lottery system put into place for appointing House members at the state level, either.
Ostracism – Athens had a safety valve to stop any one individual from growing too powerful – ostracism. Each year all citizens would vote if they wanted to hold an ostracism. If two thirds said yes, then tow months later the ostracism was held. Citizens would write the name of the person they wanted banished and if one person got enough votes, they were exiled from Athens for ten years, but did not lose their property or citizenship. In theory, this could happen every year. In practice, it was rarely used.
Just think how this could change the behavior of some of our politicians and citizens if they knew they could be booted off the island for ten years. I would change it a bit from what Athens instituted. I would increase the number of potential ostracisms to 5 year year, our population is many times over what Athens was. I would also exempt judges and current political office holders from possibility of ostracism during their time in office. Otherwise we would be having special elections most every year.
The downside of this is I can see it being used to exile celebrities that we are sick of hearing about. I know I would be tempted to cast a vote for Lindsey Lohan.
True democratic voting for major issues – For most every major decision, the citizens of Athens voted yes or no after listening to a debate. They were able to do this because it was a small city and most of its citizens could gather in one place and vote with a show of hands. For a long time, this type of direct democracy wasn’t possible on a national scale in the USA. We couldn’t get information out to the majority of our citizens in a timely manner and just having a Presidential election every four years was difficult.
Now, this is a possibility. I don’t think we could have a nation-wide vote for every law proposed, but we could set a few important things aside that would be reserved for a direct ballot by registered voters. I strongly feel that declarations of war and acceptance of peace treaties should only come to pass with a super majority direct vote. This would mean increased expense and preparation to make this possible, but decisions of this importance should only be made in accordance to the will of the people – especially the will of the very people who are expected to go an fight.
So that’s my wish list. If you could make a few adjustments, what would they be?