I think there would need to be some minimal filter on those who would govern. Age, for one, but maybe also a high school diploma or equivalent and a "citizenship test" that everyone would have to pass to graduate high school.
Why Not Have a Randomly Selected Congress?
21–30 of 97 posts
Re: Why Not Have a Randomly Selected Congress?
#22Do we want the statistical average of us to create laws that stick around for years? If so, we need to raise the average significantly. Also, this would put enormous power in the hands of lobbyists and bureaucrats; a demographic that is not exactly brimming with the diversity that this 'solution' attempts to put in place.
I think the solution is just to ban lobbying as it currently exists. I ran across an interesting argument about a month ago basically saying that, legally, there are things we can own but not sell, like a spleen, because the societal consequences of allowing people to sell their organs are so disastrous. They made the point that maybe you should similarly have the right to lobby your congressman but that you wouldn't have the right to sell that capability.
Re: Why Not Have a Randomly Selected Congress?
#23Maybe. Maaaayyyyybe this could work. Or it could spell the end of the world's largest economy as we know it. I have in the past toyed with ideas like randomly selecting the Senate from a pool of outstanding civil service exam scores, or by instituting a third legislative house to be randomly selected, but in any case to do so is to jump headfirst into an uncertain pool of chaos. The system set up by our founding fath…
Funny you say that when your name is rm -rf /
Re: Why Not Have a Randomly Selected Congress?
#24I think there would need to be some minimal filter on those who would govern. Age, for one, but maybe also a high school diploma or equivalent and a "citizenship test" that everyone would have to pass to graduate high school.
In many countries you just need to write-read to be able to run for a gov position.
Re: Why Not Have a Randomly Selected Congress?
#25Do we want the statistical average of us to create laws that stick around for years? If so, we need to raise the average significantly. Also, this would put enormous power in the hands of lobbyists and bureaucrats; a demographic that is not exactly brimming with the diversity that this 'solution' attempts to put in place.
> Do we want the statistical average of us to create laws that stick around for years?
People are judged everyday by their "statistical average" with consequences that can stick around for many years (long jail terms) or be permanent (death sentences). While the criminal jury system is not perfect, it appears vastly more functional than Congress at present.
The article also mentions Aristotle, and he identified three dimensions of discourse: logos, ethos and pathos. While elected congressmen may be a little better at logic (it's not like they're all rocket scientists), they appear to be quite deficient in ethics and not similar enough to the average constituent to truly empathize. Losing a bit of logos for big increases in ethos and pathos seems like a pretty good deal to me.
> Also, this would put enormous power in the hands of lobbyists
Not really, their main weapon are campaign contributions.
Re: Why Not Have a Randomly Selected Congress?
#26The author Ernest Callenbach made a very detailed proposal for just this back in the 80's, called "A Citizen Legislature": https://www.well.com/~mp/citleg.html
Re: Why Not Have a Randomly Selected Congress?
#27Do we want the statistical average of us to create laws that stick around for years? If so, we need to raise the average significantly. Also, this would put enormous power in the hands of lobbyists and bureaucrats; a demographic that is not exactly brimming with the diversity that this 'solution' attempts to put in place.
I think the solution is just to ban lobbying as it currently exists. I ran across an interesting argument about a month ago basically saying that, legally, there are things we can own but not sell, like a spleen, because the societal consequences of allowing people to sell their organs are so disastrous. They made the point that maybe you should similarly have the right to lobby your congressman but that you wouldn't…
So no lobbying from EFF or Natural Resources Defense Council?
Re: Why Not Have a Randomly Selected Congress?
#28Do we want the statistical average of us to create laws that stick around for years? If so, we need to raise the average significantly. Also, this would put enormous power in the hands of lobbyists and bureaucrats; a demographic that is not exactly brimming with the diversity that this 'solution' attempts to put in place.
> Do we want the statistical average of us to create laws that stick around for years? People are judged everyday by their "statistical average" with consequences that can stick around for many years (long jail terms) or be permanent (death sentences). While the criminal jury system is not perfect, it appears vastly more functional than Congress at present. The article also mentions Aristotle, and he identified three…
The difference being that the justice system generally affects one person at a time. What Congress does affects 300 million to 7 billion.
Re: Why Not Have a Randomly Selected Congress?
#29It's an interesting idea but has the same flaw as term limits: the power would shift from the Congressperson to the staffers who are unknown, unaccountable, and sometimes even worse people.
When I worked for various agencies in DC, one of the first things I learned was who the power players and key people were in each of our Senators' & Congresspersons' offices. It is quite often not the Senator but the scheduler. Yes, the person who runs the Senator's calendar and determines who gets on it and who doesn't.
We found pretty quickly that this scheduler was - almost without exception - a single woman in her mid 20's. Therefore, whenever we knew that we would need access, we would do little things like bring flowers or chocolates "for the office" but make sure to leave them with her. When we found out about new restaurants or a show she'd like, we'd pass her the info. By the time we needed that meeting and gave her a call, we would get it every single time.. often the same day.
And yes, we worked with both parties and names you'd recognize.
* Am I proud about any of that? Nope but that is how the Hill works. And giving those people more powerful is an awful idea.
Re: Why Not Have a Randomly Selected Congress?
#30I think there would need to be some minimal filter on those who would govern. Age, for one, but maybe also a high school diploma or equivalent and a "citizenship test" that everyone would have to pass to graduate high school.
In many countries you just need to write-read to be able to run for a gov position.
America has a not so great history with written tests used as anti-democratic weapons.