[LINK] Senator Online

[Philip Argy]

Maybe the party system has gone too far and one SOL per State might be a
nice balance.  If every member of Parliament always had a conscience vote on
everything I'd be happy, but in recent times we seem to have had a very
small number of out-of-touch people leading their 'loyal' colleagues to
support stupid decisions instead of crossing the floor or, at least, being
more assertive in the party room.  Not sure what the democratic equivalent
of market failure is but I fear we're about to realise it.  Maybe I've been
sufficiently impressed with Nick Xenophon's ability to cut through a lot of
the spin and engage sensibly on issues that I'd like to see more like him,
but I don't want to get too off topic.  This thread is simply to consider
technological as well as philosophical implications of what SOL are
proposing.

Philip


-----Original Message-----
From: link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au
[mailto:link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Brendan Scott
Sent: Wednesday, 18 August 2010 09:13
Cc: Link at mailman1.anu.edu.au
Subject: Re: [LINK] Senator Online

On 08/18/2010 08:47 AM, Philip Argy wrote:
> I may have missed it but is there a LINK thread discussing this
initiative:
> 
> http://www.senatoronline.org.au/ 
 
It is a cute idea, but as I see it the point of our democracy is not that we
elect politicians to do what we think (which may result in a weird kind of
demagoguery/ochlocracy), but to think for us, subject to being booted out if
they think too wrong.  
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