<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=""><br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 10 Jan 2020, at 22:50, Rand Strauss <<a href="mailto:Rand@PeopleCount.org" class="">Rand@PeopleCount.org</a>> wrote:</div><div class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div></div></div></blockquote><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" 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="">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 class="">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 class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">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 class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">To spell it out, <a href="https://blog.peoplecount.org/series/real-accountability/" class="">accountability is</a>:</div><div class=""><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 class="">Further on in the series, the rest of the relationship is fleshed out.</div><div class="">-r</div></div></div></div></blockquote><br class=""></div><div>Direct democracy and generally direct action assumes an interaction between an individual and a state of the world / physical object. So, the above definition is limited to a republican form of governance. It isn’t possible to compare two things, if the definitional frame eliminates one from consideration.</div><div><br class=""></div><div><br class=""></div><div>dss</div><div><br class=""></div><br class=""><div class="">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); 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; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">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" class="">dss@socialinformatics.org</a> Tel./Signal: +45 3095 4070</div></div></div>
</div>
<br class=""></body></html>