Monday, October 02, 2006
The Ultimate in Engagement
I wanted to revisit the idea of democracy. Maybe there is something in the air - 'rogue' regimes, coups, corruption or a tunneled western view of democracy revolving only around elections. It seems that everyone has a perspective - well that is democracy after all! The key point about democracy though is not just our ability to hold a personal perspective, but also our ability to act upon that and put it into practice in some consensual way.
The key instrument (but importantly far from the only tool) to do this is through an election. I can remember growing up in the UK where a Thursday election invariably meant several things:
- working people found it a hassle to vote on a working day (given that voting was not compulsory many just stay at home)
- even when you did bother to vote the queues were so long it was almost a test of your patience and stamina, not your allegiance to a perpsective on the world
Now UK democracy is not perfect (what in life is)? I have heard similar types of arguments in the US elections as well. However at least in these markets one is free to vote their chosen way without fear of reprimand or reprisal. In some countries this is not true.
So my point here is that do we need to (post-) modernise the process of elections? Surely by electronic (read on-line) means we can do this more sensibly:
- convenient at my desktop
- secure and anonymous
- quick
- real-time results?
So we extend the elections to not just once every few years we can even vote on key issues that affect our country (earth?) each day/ each month / each year. Why not? Some people will talk about on-line literacy, on-line security, on-line access and so on. These considerations are real but they will disappear just as the problem of giving the vote to woman has! It is only a matter of time.
Is this not sensible? Why do manual hand counting of votes that can be manipulated? Have we not seen examples of this recently in selected countries? Come to think of it why not do the census via on-line distribution as well?
That is democracy in action. Updated and engaging. Not a 'hassle' and not one point in time. It will happen, and that is my ambition to do it. Not on a small scale mind - on the largest scale of all. I will leave that to your imagination!
The key instrument (but importantly far from the only tool) to do this is through an election. I can remember growing up in the UK where a Thursday election invariably meant several things:
- working people found it a hassle to vote on a working day (given that voting was not compulsory many just stay at home)
- even when you did bother to vote the queues were so long it was almost a test of your patience and stamina, not your allegiance to a perpsective on the world
Now UK democracy is not perfect (what in life is)? I have heard similar types of arguments in the US elections as well. However at least in these markets one is free to vote their chosen way without fear of reprimand or reprisal. In some countries this is not true.
So my point here is that do we need to (post-) modernise the process of elections? Surely by electronic (read on-line) means we can do this more sensibly:
- convenient at my desktop
- secure and anonymous
- quick
- real-time results?
So we extend the elections to not just once every few years we can even vote on key issues that affect our country (earth?) each day/ each month / each year. Why not? Some people will talk about on-line literacy, on-line security, on-line access and so on. These considerations are real but they will disappear just as the problem of giving the vote to woman has! It is only a matter of time.
Is this not sensible? Why do manual hand counting of votes that can be manipulated? Have we not seen examples of this recently in selected countries? Come to think of it why not do the census via on-line distribution as well?
That is democracy in action. Updated and engaging. Not a 'hassle' and not one point in time. It will happen, and that is my ambition to do it. Not on a small scale mind - on the largest scale of all. I will leave that to your imagination!
