<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">Being able to vote for powerless representatives is not enough to be a real democracy.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If you want, I’ll amend my statement:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div dir="auto" class=""><div class=""><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="" style="word-wrap: break-word; line-break: after-white-space;"><div class=""><div class=""><div class="" style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">We don’t have a <i class="">effective</i> democracy. </span></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Democracy’s purpose is to give political power to the people, and <i class="">just</i> to the people. America's doesn’t work. Without real mechanisms that deliver accountability, voters don’t have real power.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The power to elect people gives just a small bit of power. In our system of parties, primary elections, expensive campaigns and plurality voting, the lack of much competition further reduces this bit of power almost negligible. Similarly, Congressional dysfunction stops the little bit of power our representatives could wield on our behalf if they were so inclined. Still, accountability could alleviate these problems as well.</div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div dir="auto" class=""><div class=""><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="" style="word-wrap: break-word; line-break: after-white-space;"><div class=""><div class="">The major conceptual challenge is defining operationally what is meant by “representative.” </div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></blockquote></div><div class=""><div class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div dir="auto" class=""><div class=""><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="" style="word-wrap: break-word; line-break: after-white-space;"><div class=""><div class="">Other terms, such as "accountability,” face the same problem, with no theoretically rigorous answer in sight</div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I suspect we can build an operational definition of representative.</div>I know one can assemble an operational definition of accountability.</div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div dir="auto" class=""><div class=""><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="" style="word-wrap: break-word; line-break: after-white-space;"><div class=""><div class="">The only solution...is to empirically determine the degree to which governmental decisions reflect the desires of the population</div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></blockquote><br class=""></div><div class="">No, it’s not the only solution.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Plus, it is not reliable. In a true democracy, not only are representatives accountable to voters, but voters are responsible for holding representatives accountable. The desires of responsible voters differ greatly from the surveyed desires of randomly selected, surprised, only-responsible-for-voting voters. Such voters are often poorly informed since they lack rewards for being informed about political issues. In fact, being informed merely makes one more frustrated- many find it to be a negative reward.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">An operational definition of accountability</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We have at least two common examples of accountability. In a business, a worker is accountable to his/her boss. In a school, a student is accountable to each teacher. From these, a rigorous operational definition can be created.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div>One of the reasons we don’t know what "accountability" means is that we think it’s some sort of "ability." It’s not. It’s a relationship. A circular definition might be: Accountability is a relationship where Worker is accountable to Boss and Boss holds Worker accountable. So we have 2 parties in a relationship.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>What’s a relationship? A relationship is where two people have roles with respect to each other and communicate about them. We want to have this being-accountable/holding-accountable relationship between voters and politicians, we currently can’t because we lack the communication mechanisms. </div><div><br class=""></div><div>To spell it out, <a href="https://blog.peoplecount.org/series/real-accountability/" class="">accountability is</a>:</div><div><ul style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.625em 2.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: square; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">"the boss guiding the worker and having expectations</li><li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">the worker answering the boss’ questions regularly</li><li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">the boss judging the worker</li><li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">the boss being able to fire the worker"</li></ul></div><div>Further on in the series, the rest of the relationship is fleshed out.</div><div>-r</div><div><br class=""></div><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Wed, Jan 8, 2020, 11:21 AM David Stodolsky <<a href="mailto:dss@socialinformatics.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" class="">dss@socialinformatics.org</a>> wrote:</div><div class=""><div dir="auto" class=""><div class=""><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space" class=""><br class=""><div class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 8 Jan 2020, at 04:37, Rand Strauss <<a href="mailto:Rand@PeopleCount.org" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">Rand@PeopleCount.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class=""><div class=""><div style="font-family:Palatino-Roman;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none" class="">We don’t have a democracy. Humanity has never had a true representative democracy of any large number of people.</div></div></blockquote></div><div class=""><br class=""></div>It is wise to apply technically correct terms, when dealing with disputed concepts. Until the formation of the USA, “democracy” meant “Athens” - a form of governance in which people vote directly on the issues. My “eDemocracy review” provides a summary:<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><a href="https://groups.io/g/yellowvests/wiki/eDemocracy-and-Athenian-democracy" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">https://groups.io/g/yellowvests/wiki/eDemocracy-and-Athenian-democracy</a><br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The current usage of “democracy” can be considered one of the greatest propaganda victories in history. When Benjamin Franklin was asked the result of the constitutional convention he said, “A republic, if you can keep it.” This is a technically correct characterization. A governance system in which people select others to decide issues is a republic. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">So, a "representative democracy” is a republican form of government. The major conceptual challenge is defining operationally what is meant by “representative.” Other terms, such as "accountability,” face the same problem, with no theoretically rigorous answer in sight. The only solution to this quandary is to empirically determine the degree to which governmental decisions reflect the desires of the population. A recent study suggest that citizens have no such influence in the USA:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial
independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no
independent influence.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><a href="https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">dss</div><div class=""><br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""><div class="">
<div style="letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space" class=""><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" class="">David Stodolsky, PhD Institute for Social Informatics<br class="">Tornskadestien 2, st. th., DK-2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark<br class=""><a href="mailto:dss@socialinformatics.org" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">dss@socialinformatics.org</a> Tel./Signal: +45 3095 4070</div></div></div>
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