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It’s hard to disagree with some of them A harsh criticism of the British political system Produced this week by Dominic Cummings. The former Downing Street aide said that a democracy that forced voters to serve as prime ministers between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbin “has been seriously wrong.” This bad binary choice is politically equivalent to a cookie checkbox on a website, giving voters a false hope, but leaving them no choice but to accept non-negotiable terms and conditions.
Can we imagine a better democracy on Mars? The biggest advantage of thought experiment is that it expands the field of debate. Therefore, Hélène Landemore, a professor of political science at Yale University, recently challenged her students to write a constitution for Mars (her previous work to reshape the U.S. Constitution sometimes caused insurmountable disputes). ). This exercise will not only attract travelers fixed on Mars such as SpaceX founder Elon Musk, but politicians should also be interested in it. The students did not copy a standard template of elected parliament and representative government, but sketched out a more participatory form of politics.
There is no doubt that the fictitious Mars Bill of Rights focuses on its universal value and echoes the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, the 31-page student constitution also reflects more contemporary concerns, including, for example, physical and psychological integrity, the right to privacy and freedom from government interference, and the right to complete personal data. In addition, it clearly extends the scope of constitutional protection to animals and the environment.
But its biggest feature is that it implicitly rejected the democratic political election model and established six permanent “mini-publics” of 250 randomly selected citizens of Mars, in order to focus on economic, social and environmental policies, civil rights, government supervision and Legislation in the interstellar realm. relationship. Then, fifty representatives from each of these micro-countries will sit in the overall central chamber, which will approve the government’s budget and have veto power over legislation.
These students have obviously stayed awake because Landemore is one of the busiest students Convincing advocate For this “open democracy.” Her argument is that traditional electoral politics are often captured by wealthy people, networked, and ruled by narrow el elites that cannot be fulfilled. She said: “At some point, you have to be honest and say that this electoral model cannot save a lot of things.”
Her idea is based on the long-term Citizen assembly This includes a randomly sampled population to ensure that as many different perspectives as possible are respected when setting the political agenda. “The best way is to diversify your team composition, rather than trying to maximize its capabilities. She said.
The failure of traditional French politics and the promises and pitfalls of citizen assemblies illustrate this point well. Yellow vest Protests in 2018. Poor, car-dependent voters protested that the political class in Paris was in chaos, because fuel prices rose ignoring their worries.In response, President Emmanuel Macron initiated a National debate leads to Citizens Climate Convention.
This French example highlights the difficulty of translating good theory into actual policy.Some assembly members Feel betrayed Because the Parliament did not adopt all of their recommendations, even though Landemore insisted that they drastically changed the dial of public debate. Her argument is that the demand for democracy is almost generally high, but its supply is excessively restricted.
This argument will surely resonate among a participant. Political meeting Held this week in Moscow, it marks the centenary of the birth of the late Soviet-era human rights activist Andrei Sakharov. They worry that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is the “messenger of the future”, which shows how authoritarian regimes can reject universal moral values and international rules and build a “managed democracy” behind the electoral system.
In many other countries, this danger is also real. We should not wait until the astronauts reach Mars and try to participate in sex politics to strengthen democracy.
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