Some things you just shouldn’t try to do yourself. An appendectomy. Running a government. Giving yourself a haircut, when you’re five years old.
Let’s stick with the government conversation, for now. 😎🕺🏻
There are some who dislike, misunderstand, or even mock the “Electoral College” system, and “Representative Democracy.”
“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried.”
-Winston Churchill
“Representative democracy is the only form of democracy that can work in a large nation-state.”
-John Adams
There is a place for a “federal monarchy“ such as in the UAE. Each region has its own “Emir“. This “potentially” preserves individuality amongst regions and populations and cultures and economies, while maximizing efficiency by nearly eliminating bureaucracy and arguments. There would be no “Burj Khalifa” in a democracy. One phone call changed the air traffic control routes over Dubai to make room for the world’s tallest building.
Of course this Emirate system only works well with a benevolent and wise Emir. It surely backfires with a tyrant or fool at the helm.
It turns out the quote, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely“ is not only in play for a monarchy or dictatorship, but also in a representative democracy without term limits.
That said, what are the advantages of a representative democracy over a democracy?
A democracy allows for total involvement by every citizen on every topic for every law. Is that good or bad? To a public that doesn’t wish to become an expert in every field of energy, ecology, technology, agriculture, manufacturing, water quality and like… we can hire people to do that. We call them senators and representatives.
In a representative democracy, elected “officials” can take the time to become experts, and pass intelligent laws, debated in congressional halls — and still maintain transparency. If they violate the trust of the people they represent, they can be removed (if an intelligent voter is willing to ignore the money behind television commercials, and the seduction of name recognition of incumbents, to actually consider differing policies.)
As in an emirate system, minus the kings and replaced with employees called representatives and senators, each region, with its variations in economies, products, cultures and languages, can get in their “say” to find compromises and alternatives that meet the needs of their constituents.
In a straight up democracy, an urban city or state or region has an outsized impact on the rest of the citizens of their country. Just as Belgium created Brexit by not understanding the culture of countries they hoped to represent in the European Union, Chicago is not exactly qualified to represent Alabama or Montana simply because they have a greater population than Alabama or Montana.
The electoral college is the same.
And now I’m all out of my 3000 characters. Too bad. We were just about to start having fun.
