They're not voting because...
- The fundamental basis of our system, ...
The fundamental basis of our system, i.e. representative democracy, is a fraud, because it assumes that we cannot responsibly be allowed to govern ourselves, and therefore must delegate power to an underelected elite. Compunded by the absence of proportional representation, this disenfranchises us by forcing us to vote for a limited number of fairly arbitrary groupings of policy (i.e. the manifestos) which only represent a narrow spectrum of political hues, rather than voting for or against the things we actually want.
This is preferable in certain circumstances; for instance, how much of the electorate could cast, or would bother to cast, an informed vote on intricate fraud legislation or provisions for research on the human genome project.
However, creating a constitutional provision for the electorate to petition for a referendum on any issue, as in Switzerland, for example, would help, as would an allowance for a contituency to "recall" its representative, such as is allowed in several states in the USA.
This would force our leaders to show moral and intellectual leadership and courage if they wish the electorate to vote for the things they believe in - to make the case for each policy, rather than asking us to vote against hard-right immigration policies and end up getting privatised schools and the destruction of habeas corpus.
written 22nd Apr 2005
Responses
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Michael M. replies: Original poster wrote: "However, creating a constitutional provision for the electorate to
petition for a referendum on any issue, as in Switzerland, for example, would help, as would an
allowance for a constituency to "recall" its representative, such as is allowed in several
states in the USA."You make a very good case for reform of our democracy to allow us to decide on certain,
selected public issues, in addition to voting for politicians who are supposed to take over all our responsibility.We have launched a campaign to promote this reform. Please visit http://www.iniref.org/
You are welcome to join.
written 22nd Apr 2005
