A case for direct democracy

The biggest failure of REPRESENTATIVE democracy is this: leaders of political parties hold political campaigns in which they state their intent for what they will do when they are elected.

Then they come into office and the promises to the electorate are invariably broken.

Why did this happen?

Because shit happened and they had to adapt OR because they followed the Leninist idea where they tell the electorate exactly what they want to hear, to get into power, and then, once in power, they do just what they want.

Both scenarios apply. And in both scenarios the electorate is disappointed.

And then we have intimidation before and after elections, and vote rigging, during the elections. Not a pretty picture!

Does this mean democracy is a bad idea?

Well what is the alternative? An autocracy? An oligarchy?

The logical extreme of allowing autocracies and oligarchies is a global empire, led by a single or a tiny group of dictators. Or we could hope for a world where there is no government, no law, no money… and then when our children wake up, they live in Empire Earth! Political power is a fact of life.

No. There can be no alternative to democracy!

“But democracy is a failure” I hear you object…

Democracy can work if the right kind of democracy is applied. REPRESENTATIVE democracy is a disaster. But what about DIRECT democracy? The only place where this was ever tried was in ancient Athens, and it worked well.

There is absolutely no reason why DIRECT democracy cannot also be applied to a modern society.

But what is direct democracy?

Simply put, it is a citizen parliament, where the people decide the political agenda (what must be voted on); the people nominate on the candidates who will oversee the management and implementation of solutions to which issue; the people vote on which candidate to oversee which issue; the candidates report back to the people; the people thank or fire the candidates base on their performance.

Yes, this is a brand new idea. But frankly, I cannot see any alternative. And it sounds like a pretty good deal to me. It worked for the ancient Athenians, why could it not work for us?