Improving Democracy
Make Politics a Profession Like Doctor or Lawyer
I like democracy as a governing principle. I think history has shown and that time will tell that democracy is the most benign system of governance and that enables whole populations to prosper in peace.
Democracies come in many flavors. Once I thought all democracies were alike. I've found that there are many variants. Canada, USA, Britain, France, Switzerland, Australia . . . (list goes on) all have quite different systems even though they are all based on the idea of people electing their governors by a popular vote.
It's a pretty chaotic process that is often dismaying to watch but perhaps the chaos is essential to it's functioning because the popular vote tends to act as a ratchet. Once the chaos produces a good thing then the popular vote tends to keep it.
Democracy depends on a fairly delicate social structure involving things like trust and custom. Small customs like accepting the outcome of the vote and trustworthy information sources. And the chaos of democracy can easily damage that structure.
I've seen proposals for improving democracy that all have to do with changing the way we vote from a simple one person one vote to a more complicated system that purports to capture the will of the people more accurately. Personally I don't like such systems because the complexity makes the system pretty opaque and hard to trust. But I could easily live with such a system if it came.
But I suggest that there is a more fundamental problem with democracy that we never talk about - and that is politicians - they don't need professional qualifications to run for office. Any TV star with huge name recognition can do it. All you need is a huge ego.
I watch American news a lot and I've seen a few entertainers go into politics and I've thought they were a disaster. The situation in Canada isn't as extreme as in America but I see similar forces at work. And it ends up with strong willed people in power who have no idea of governance beyond forcing people to their will.
Medicine might provide an example of a better way. It takes years of study to qualify for med school so you can spend years to become a doctor and then more years to become a surgeon or specialist. I would not like to get medical treatment from somebody who got the position because they can win a popular vote..
Same with lawyers.
Heck - same with plumbers
Why not with politicians.
I'm thinking that it should take years of study to get a politician "licence" and then you start by running for local office and then on up the political ladder as you learn the ropes. Being President of the USA should not be an entry level position.
My jobs have always been with very small companies so I worked quite closely with owners and managers and got to see what it was like. I never thought I had the skills to do their work. They had to satisfy a slew of legal and accounting regulations that I knew little about. They had to deal with personnel issues that I have neither the temperament nor training to handle.
I think that even if you want to be a plumber you need to have your background checked as a part of being certified. All by itself a background check, before you are qualified to run for office, might eliminate a lot of bad apples.
What do you think?
I present regular philosophy discussions in a virtual reality called Second Life.
I set a topic and people come as avatars and sit around a virtual table to discuss it.
Each week I write a short essay to set the topic.
I show a selection of them here.