A Variety of Possibilities
>From Scott Trimble
February 20, 2007

I have recently found your website. I am also concerned with this topic. While I disagree with some of the positions espoused on your website, that is what democracy is about, and more importantly, we seem to be in some agreement on the idea that our country needs to be more democratic.

One thing I'd like to see more of on your website would be a broader set of options about how democracy might look. While initiative and referendum measures and e-voting can be part of the picture, you should not leave out ideas such as community assemblies and citizen committees at which real people could participate in discussions about the things that shape our lives.

I also didn't see much about how other ideas, such as citizen recalls of elected officials, instant runoff voting for choosing elected officials, direct avenues for citizens to initiate Constitutional Amendments, citizen oversight of the judiciary, etc.

I'd also like to suggest that we should democratize the executive branch too. We should replace the President and Cabinet with an Executive Council of 25 persons, elected by Proportional Representation (4% national supports get 1 seat on the council). As a whole they would act in all the capacities now given the President. Each member would sit on several Executive Committees, each of which would manage the various departments of the Executive Branch, thus serving in the capacity now held by the Cabinet members.

I have recently started a yahoo group and a wordpress blog to serve as open discussion fora on democracy. If you would like to participate in that, you are quite welcome to post your ideas, comments, and your amendment proposal.

I am hoping to bring together as many people as I can find to engage in discussion and debate on the topic, and hopefully reach some sort of consensus on what will be most key to maximizing support and the possibility of making this a reality.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/real-democracy/

http://realdemocracy.wordpress.com/

I have also created a petition page for us to be able to show how much support we can gather. Please consider signing it and referring others to it.

http://www.petitiononline.com/realdemo/petition.html

John K. Westberg II from South Portland, Maine suggests telephonic voting:

For what it's worth, I suggest that telephonic voting may be more acceptable to the populace than computer voting. Everyone has access to a telephone, while a significant share of our American neighbors have no computers or facility with using them. Insofar as possible, let's use existing infrastructure and mature and easily accessible technology.

Please let me know if I can be of assistance in any way.

Yaron Holland suggests a Jury (or poll) direct democracy:

I suggest using a Jury System to implement DD.

The number of members in the Jury and the majority needed to approve (or disapprove) would be calculated to make sure (99.99% or more) that the same decision would be made if it was made by all the voters. This would enable voters to make a large number of decisions without requiring a lot of time. Each voter would be able to make informed decisions based on facts and arguments.

The current representative system would be converted to aid voters in their jury work, and to provide data from all sides to each vote. The same Jury could also be used to oversee government.

Danilo D'Antonio from Italy suggests an Evolved Direct Democracy:

Visit Mr. D'Antonio's website, "The Social Innovations Market" at:
http://social-innovations-market.hyperlinker.org