Direct democracy? We have the technology!

[Acajack]

All the talk about democracy got me thinking if our current system, representative democracy, might not be an outdated relic of another era.

When you think about it, democracy began as government for the people, by the people, but quickly evolved to representative democracy due to geographic and occupational constraints. All of the people living many km away from the agora (or Ottawa) couldn't easily travel there all the time for debates and votes, and even those in close proximity had fields or farm animals or other activities to attend to during the day.

And so we came to elect representatives who devoted themselves full-time (pretty much) to debating the issues and voting in our name.

But now that we have advanced technology that links the entire world all the time, and in light of the cynicism about politics and growing disengagement from the affairs of the polis (leaving them increasingly in the hands of the extremes), is there an opportunity to turn the whole thing upside down?

What if we as citizens were allowed to debate most things and vote on them directly? Perhaps a certain amount of reading and participation in debates would be required, and then all of the citizens who went to the trouble of getting involved (meeting minimum criteria) would get to vote?

I am not convinced that the average sitting MP is more knowledgeable on (or even interested in) issues X, Y and Z than the average SSPer is, for example.

Plus, let's not forget that our MPs are bound by party discipline most of the time, and as such often don't even vote according to the facts presented before them or the arguments put forth in debates.

Another thing is that the real experts on most issues are public servants, who take often very general policy orientations from the highest level politicians and run with them, and make them happen after a bit of tweaking from the political class.

I don't mean to disparage our MPs: it's an honourable job I'd love to have, but in the interest of making our society more democratic, I am not sure that a House full of 338 of them serves the public optimally.