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by s1artibartfast 11 days ago
Sounds like a failure to align interests. In general, politicians should want to be elected by the public, rewarded for acting in the public interest, and punished for not doing so.

A system that does none of those things and just hopes it will all work out is a recipe for disaster. Why bother even having elections in that case?
1 comments
asdf88990 10 days ago
Good question. But data shows that elections maybe entirely unrelated to policy making.

http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/GilensPage2014.pdf

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JumpCrisscross 10 days ago
That study has been roundly criticised. In part for misunderstanding how a republic is supposed to work. It's not a majoritarian system by design–direct democracy doesn't work.
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asdf88990 10 days ago
That is a lot of bold assertions without substance.
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JumpCrisscross 10 days ago
> That is a lot of bold assertions without substance

Versus this comment?

Here's one: attention is a finite resource. Most people adjudicate their political attention precisely. Survey folks on whether Twizzlers or Red Vines should be banned and you'll get an answer. The fact that nobody acts on that impulse doesn't mean your republic is broken. It means that isn't a priority issue.

The practical example of this dilemma is foreign policy. Poll Americans about any foreign-policy issue and you'll see sharp divides. Put candidates in front of them that run on that issue and, nine times out of ten, outside I think twenty Congressional districts, it has no effect.

If you aren't weighting by issue magnitude, you're conducting propaganda. Pickety's research isn't total crap. But it isn't instructive for changing our system of government.

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asdf88990 10 days ago
Obviously you didn’t read the linked research otherwise you wouldn’t entertain a red herring like foreign policy.

But it appears that you think Slavery and all sort of exploitation and gun-powder diplomacy has been a choice for reasons other than self-interest which makes any rational discourse unlikely, so best of luck to you.

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JumpCrisscross 10 days ago
> it appears that you think Slavery

This is a hyperbolic form of argument. (I'm also noticing this is a new account...)

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