[liberationtech] Democracy (was: Re: Would you like to put the list under permanent moderation?

[David Stodolsky]

> On 10 Jan 2020, at 22:50, Rand Strauss <Rand at PeopleCount.org> wrote:
> 

>> 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
> 
> I suspect we can build an operational definition of representative.
> I know one can assemble an operational definition of accountability.
> 
>> The only solution...is to empirically determine the degree to which governmental decisions reflect the desires of the population
> 
> No, it’s not the only solution.
> 
> 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.
> 
> An operational definition of accountability
> 
> 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.
> 
> 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.
> 
> 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.  
> 
> To spell it out, accountability is <https://blog.peoplecount.org/series/real-accountability/>:
> "the boss guiding the worker and having expectations
> the worker answering the boss’ questions regularly
> the boss judging the worker
> the boss being able to fire the worker"
> Further on in the series, the rest of the relationship is fleshed out.
> -r

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.


dss


David Stodolsky, PhD                   Institute for Social Informatics
Tornskadestien 2, st. th., DK-2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark
dss at socialinformatics.org          Tel./Signal: +45 3095 4070

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