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24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 5. Democracy / c. Direct democracy

[decisions are made by most of the population]

9 ideas
A good citizen won't be passive, but will redirect the needs of the state [Plato]
     Full Idea: The only responsibility of a good member of a community is altering the community's needs rather than going along with them.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 517b)
Democracy is a legitimate gathering of people who do whatever they can do [Spinoza]
     Full Idea: Democracy is properly defined as a united gathering of people which collectively has the sovereign right to do all that it has the power to do.
     From: Baruch de Spinoza (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus [1670], 16.08)
     A reaction: Representative democracy doesn't fit this definition. What 'unites' the people, and where do they get their sovereign right? If my neighbouring village votes to invade mine, I spurn their pathetic 'sovereign right'.
In a democracy the people should manage themselves, and only delegate what they can't do [Montesquieu]
     Full Idea: In a democracy, the people, which holds the sovereign power, ought itself to do everything it can do well; that which it cannot do well must be done by its ministers.
     From: Baron de Montesquieu (The Spirit of the Laws (rev. 1757) [1748], 02.02)
     A reaction: This is just what you see when a group of residents manages their own building. Citizens in representative democracies become utterly lazy about running their society, so that they won't even pick up litter, or report communal problems.
A democratic assembly must have a fixed number, to see whether everyone has spoken [Montesquieu]
     Full Idea: It is essential to fix the number of citizens who can participate in assemblies. Otherwise it would be uncertain whether all the people had spoken, or only a part of it. At Sparta the number was fixed at ten thousand.
     From: Baron de Montesquieu (The Spirit of the Laws (rev. 1757) [1748], 02.02)
     A reaction: This looks like an immediate injustice to the citizen who came 10,001 in the rankings. 10,000 is just a smallish football crowd, so we could manage it today. We could pick the 10,000 by sortition (by lot). Most people are fairly sensible!
In a direct democracy, only the leaders should be able to propose new laws [Rousseau]
     Full Idea: In order to stop ...the dangerous innovations that finally ruined Athens, no one would have the power to propose new laws according to his fancy; this right belongs exclusively to the magistrates.
     From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Discourse on the Origin of Inequality [1754], Intro letter)
     A reaction: Aristotle says (somewhere!) that control of the agenda for meetings is the key issue in democracies. I assume any citizen can propose a law, but only a magistrate can put it on the agenda. Maybe a separate 'citizen's committee' could filter suggestions.
Direct democracy is inexperience judging experience, and ignorance judging knowledge [Mill]
     Full Idea: At its best [direct democracy] is inexperience sitting in judgement on experience, ignorance on knowledge.
     From: John Stuart Mill (Representative Government [1861], p.232), quoted by Jonathan Wolff - An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Rev) 4 'Representative'
     A reaction: Recent experiments have suggested that inexperienced people can become very good at making large decisions, if they are allowed to consult experts when they want to. See Van Reybrouck's 'Against Elections'.
Groups should be autonomous, with a neutral authority as arbitrator [Russell]
     Full Idea: For maximum freedom with minimum force: Autonomy within each politically important group, and a neutral authority for deciding questions involving relations between groups.
     From: Bertrand Russell (Political Ideals [1917], 3)
     A reaction: This is workplace democracy, and also considerable self-rule amongst minority groups such as religions.
You don't really govern people if you don't involve them [Reybrouck]
     Full Idea: Even with the best of intentions, those who govern the people without involving them, govern them only in a limited sense.
     From: David van Reybrouck (Against Elections [2013], 4 intro)
     A reaction: But if they are highly involved, who is governing who? Do we want the people to become happier about being governed, or do we want them more involved in doing the governing?
Teledemocracy omits debate and deliberation, which are important parts of good decisions [Swift]
     Full Idea: We are averse to teledemocracy because it misses out some important parts of a good decision-making procedure, such as debate and deliberation.
     From: Adam Swift (Political Philosophy (3rd ed) [2014], 5 'Procedures')
     A reaction: Perhaps you should be sent a short info pack, and only allowed to vote when you have passed a factual multiple choice test about the topic. Or one pack from each political party. Maybe compulsory online discussion as well.