We’ve Got Our Work Cut out for Us

Posted on February 19, 2010 by peterstone

Spotted the following quote on a message board a few minutes ago:

“I actually agree with getting rid of re-elections, but as far as sortition, I think there are too many stupid fucks in the world.”

Isn’t democracy fun?

The message board is at

http://forums.clubrsx.com/showthread.php?p=32203679

Filed under: Sortition |

4 Responses

Yoram Gat, on February 19, 2010 at 6:48 am said:

… many of whom post obscene, condescending comments to message boards, one might add.

Two points are relevant:

1. Contrary to what the elites (and Keith Sutherland) would have us believe, the main problem of delegation is not competence but alignment of interests. If your delegates’ interests and your own interests diverge, having competent delegates may very well be worse than having incompetent ones.

2. Even if competence were the main factor in determining the quality of government, elections would only be preferable to sortition if elections tended to select delegates who are competent governors. In fact, the main competency of elected delegates is in getting elected – there may be very little overlap between that and being competent governors.

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Martin Wilding Davies, on February 19, 2010 at 8:05 am said:

There is no reason why a large group selected by sortition should be any less competent than a small group of elected politicians. Indeed, given that politicians nowadays tend to be of a type, one could argue that a random group is likely to be far more competent.

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Martin Wilding Davies, on February 19, 2010 at 8:22 am said:

…I mean far more likely to be competent.

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ronald mercer, on March 5, 2010 at 10:31 am said:

I’m with Yoram Gat.

The main focus of government must be the alignment of interests.

The expletive group has interest in it’s own wonderland, much like the rest of us.

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