Aquinas wrote:You make some valid points here, but I would argue that when citizens vote for their political representatives, they tend to vote on the broad basis of their principles/political perspective/"ideology". A conservative will vote for a conservative, a liberal will vote for a liberal, a socialist will vote for a socialist and so on. ie. I don't get to vote individually on every single issue, but I do get the chance to vote for the candidate who I think will represent my wishes in a broad sense.
Aquinas wrote:Hrafn wrote:I know that some people criticise the Swiss system because it has a low voter turnout, but in my opinion this is a feature and not a bug - for every issue, there will be a portion of the voters who don't care either way, either because it doesn't affect them, or because they have no knowledge about the issue. These people are supposed to shut up!
That's an interesting view, but I'm not sure I agree, because the risk of having frequent referendums with low turnouts is that the minority "special interests" end up wielding too much influence, and decisions end up being made which do not reflect the general interests of the citizenry.
Aquinas wrote:Hrafn wrote:Too bad that there are so many politicians without qualifications! I guess the system would be vastly improved if ministers were required to have appropriate degrees. Is there any country that has such a system?
I'm not convinced that would be a good idea, but I would point out that at least in the UK, most government ministers tend to have degrees, and you'll find a lot of them went to the top private schools and to the most prestigious universities. For example, see the table in this article: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 38116.html
Autokrator15 wrote:A represenative democracy works better. On referenda most people do not know what the subject is about or simply do not care. It is best to allow politicians who devote their time to learn and to read the treaties and effects of laws to decide for us. If we do not agree with their judgement we can vote for another party the next time.
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