Not direct democracy, not the rule of the people

[koikaze]

Good Morning, Michael

re: "People can change the law if they wish to, but that's a
     separate issue.  Until they change the law, all powers of
     the executive are in force.  This is a fact."

There!  We have uncovered one aspect of our discussion that leads to
our (more apparent than real) disagreement:  You are working under the
constraints of 'what is' and I am focused on what we must have to
replace 'what is'.

We seem to be in agreement that 'what is' is unsatisfactory.


To return, then, to the concern I originally expressed, it seems to me
Votorola will help concentrate the already existing power of vested
interests because organized groups will be the most successful at
creating and populating nodes.

You seem confident that counterbalancing nodes will spring up among
the lay population, but nothing in my experience supports such an
optimistic view.  Even in Habermas' 'bourgeois public sphere', the
number of participants was only a small portion of the population.  I
submit that such people are ideologues; they participate because they
'believe'.  It is not in the people's best interest to give such
people more power.

The question in my mind is, "How do we inspire the lay public to
participate in the process?"  It is not enough that they be allowed
to, they must actually do so.  It is only when everyone participates,
however many immediately opt out, that we'll find among the remainder
the wealth of strong, principled people with the wit and wisdom to
protect us from the excesses of the ideologues.

Fred Gohlke