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Sun, Sep. 14th, 2008, 04:36 pm
National Lottery-esk Democractic Meritocracy

Reading up on the BBC's world news this morning, I was outsanded by the amount of articles that were about governmental corruption. It seems like every government is corrupt and I have no doubt that includes ours.

I believe that we should use a National Lottery-esk system of government;

Every citizen's name is collated and thirty-six names are picked "at random" each week. I say "at random" because each name should be given a scoring, determining the chance that they are picked. Part of that scoring should be determined by how long it has been since they were past picked.

The first twelve names picked should be "Experts". For these, the scorings for everyone should be determined by our knowledge, education, and experienced in the expert field. E.g. someone might be given a high score for a "Science Expert" picking if they have a PhD in Physics, etc. People should have a right to know what Expert scoring they have been given & should even be given opportunity to influence that scoring (positively or negatively).

This first selection should be public, i.e. announced on public television & on a web-page, with a brief profile of everyone who is picked and which role they have been picked for.

The remaining twenty-four names picked should be "Auditors". For these the scorings for everyone should be equal, i.e. entirely determined by how long it has been since you last were picked. The identities of the people picked should be completely secret until after they have finished their service, at which point their names and profiles should be publically announced.

The Experts should serve on governing boards for six months each. Each board should normally have 6, 12 or 24 members, depending on the range or importance of issues which it discusses. Rather than pick the whole board at once, members should be picked one at a time, staggering the process over six months. There should be a two week hand-over period when any member is changed; i.e. the successor should be selected two weeks before their predecessor leaves.

(A board with 6 members would need to pick a new member every four weeks, a board with 12 members would need to pick a new member every two weeks, whilst a board with 24 members would need to pick a new member every week.)

Each board should vote and decide on a specific range of issues, e.g. Science. There should be 16 boards of 6 members each, plus 8 boards of 12 members each, plus 4 boards of 24 members each.

Board members should meet virtually, via television and computer displays, speakers and microphones. Their voting should be confidential and the results of each vote should only become known after the process has been audited first...

The Auditors should serve as invisible shadows to the Experts. Each should serve for six months also, so therefore each Expert should be audited by two different people at the same time. The Auditors should be presented with all of the material given to their Expert, all of their dialogues from board meetings, and finally with their vote. Each Auditor's role is very simple; they should flag up if they believe that their Expert has voted in a manner that appears corrupt.

Only if both Auditors flag the same vote should that Expert's vote be neutralised, in which case it is discounted from the total vote. No effect should occur to the remaining service time for either the Auditors or the Expert. The Expert should never know if either Auditor has flagged their vote.

The scoring for an Expert should also be negatively affected by how many votes were flagged (by either Auditor). For each time that both of the auditors flagged a vote, both Auditors should have their scorings positively affected. However; for each time that only one of the two Auditors flagged a vote, both Auditors should have their scorings negatively affected.

Therefore if both Auditors tended to agree with each other, they will both be used as Auditors again sooner. If they tended to disagree with each other, however, then they will not be used as Auditors as soon. If either of the Auditors tended to flag the Expert then the Expert will not be used as an Expert as soon.

Neither Auditor should ever meet each other or ever know each other's names. The Experts should never know who audited them, either. When the identities of Auditors are made public, it should never be revealed about which Experts they were shadowing. The scoring that is based upon flagging should never be revealed to the Experts or Auditors.

Sun, Sep. 14th, 2008 04:16 pm (UTC)
[info]likeneontubing

what the hell convinces you that this would be a good idea? do you really think all 'experts' can be trusted, and that all 'auditors' can be trusted to flag this up?

do you think that all people want to be auditors?

why do you think someone academically good in a certain area is good enough to make policy decisions? each person is hugely biased. this is why politicians are separate - they only make policy decisions and so are biased in favour of the policy!

Sun, Sep. 14th, 2008 08:10 pm (UTC)
[info]two_truths

what the hell convinces you that this would be a good idea?
It is impartial. It is a fair represenative of the populations, biased towards skill and knowledge; a minority of the population would have the majority of influence over issues if their skills and knowledge were relevant to those issues.

In contrast; our current system is biased towards power and money. A minority of the population has the majority of influences over issues that benefit them - AKA "lobbying", or just plain bribery and corruption.

o you really think all 'experts' can be trusted, and that all 'auditors' can be trusted to flag this up?
Yes. I believe that the majority of the population can be trusted for the majority of the time. For the smallest boards, a minimum of eight people would need to be corrupt to change a vote. For the largest boards, a minimum of 26 people would need to be corrupt to change a vote. Since those people are all picked at random, the chances of that occuring is very slight.

(However I do agree that more measures would be needed; e.g. if a large number of auditors in one committee started flagging their experts then further attention might need to be given to that committee.)

do you think that all people want to be auditors?
There are 61 million people in Britain. If you lived 90 years, your chance of being picked once throughout your whole life would be about 1 in 500. (There would have to be exemptions for people who are in jail, mentally ill, etc.)

If someone refused to be an Auditor then someone else could be picked instead. There could be a simple fine or community service imposed upon such people as a deterrant.

People do not like jury duty, either. They still do it. We still use that process.

why do you think someone academically good in a certain area is good enough to make policy decisions?
Have you ever heard of Quangos? AKA Non-Governmental Government Bodies. These are boards of "experts" on a wide variety of issues. They make policy decisions. They are hand-picked by Ministers, via a process that is transparent enough for Ministers not to get into trouble for appointing their own family or friends. They make a lot of money for very little effort (usually 2-3 days per month, earning £8k+ plus expenses). There are some people who make even more money, by signing up for multiple boards at once. I recall there was one woman (a professor) who was on eight different boards.

person is hugely biased. this is why politicians are separate - they only make policy decisions and so are biased in favour of the policy!
Politicians are primarily interested in getting elected. Their bias is not towards what is best for the population but rather what will look best to the population, e.g. short-term frills rather than long-term planning.

When a politician is not trying to get elected, he or she is no less biased than anyone else. They will do things to win friends, gain power, pay debts, and earn money. They will be wined and dined by corporations and foreign powers & will convince themselves that they know best what other people should do or think. Eventually they will be caught at something and then they will resign, and the next lot will take their place. That is what politicians do.

Sun, Sep. 14th, 2008 08:54 pm (UTC)
[info]likeneontubing

remind me of this on thurs when i am less stressed and i'll have a proper response, but...
1. people wrangle out of jury duty all the time
2. the quangos are often out of touch with life and full of shit - ie the one saying we should all move to the south east
3. the politic. bias to getting them elected is often what the people actually want/what is best for them. they might do it for reasons of getting elected, but they are as a side effect helping.

Sun, Sep. 14th, 2008 09:59 pm (UTC)
[info]two_truths

Tell that to anyone working in Central Government. Politicians routinely create short-term popular policies that have serious long term rammifications. All the civil servants can do is mop up afterwards, time and time again. The twisted thing is that every new politician gets to gain popularity by fixing the mistakes that the last politician made.

It's a joke!

Mon, Sep. 15th, 2008 05:53 am (UTC)
[info]likeneontubing

this wouldn't just happen with the politicians stuart... it's how people are

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