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Social Dilemmas No.64

I wonder if direct democracy would work? That is everyone votes for everything and we decide every rule and government policy based on how the people voted. Would it bring the worst of us or the best? Or create more social and geographical bubbles with radically different ehtoses?

I feel it might be a bit like snowboarding; hard to get right at first, but once you get the hang of it, you love it and want to participate all the time. I'm sure that we'd see hard core lobbying at first by many special interest groups, and we'd have to suffer some lows before learning how to best navigate for OUR OWN interests. We certainly have the technology to do it...

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Discussion

Pavle 2y ago

Direct democracy has existed in Switzerland for a long while, it's an extremely inert system, they gave women voting rights only in 1975 because for a long time most men didn't think women deserved it, it would probably happen even later were it not for the outside pressure (they were the last country in Europe to give women voting rights).

It worked out for Switzerland as they have long been rich and developed, in poor and undeveloped countries direct democracy would probably lead to some sort of a religious and regressive system as you can't have a reformer that overrides the will of the majority and implements progressive policies.

BTC_P2P 1y ago

I don’t think a direct democracy is the way. It becomes tyranny of the majority then. The poor always voting to enrich themselves at the expense of the productive and so on.

Also, after decades of dumbing down the general population with propaganda, subpar educational programming and modern toxic foods substantially impacting cognitive abilities, I do not trust the average person to be able to think (or vote) with clarity or objectivity - at all.

I used to be in favor of direct democracy but after more thought and the reasons I listed above I am against it wholeheartedly.