IT Enablement of Government
Apr. 22nd, 2009 06:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sobriqueThere's a question that's been bouncing around in my head recently. How could information technology revolutionise the process of government?
I mean, if you think about it, the reason we have representatives in Parliament, is because of the intrinsic difficulties involved in letting everyone in the country express their opinion - both because of the geographic limitations, and because of time constraints - keeping up with all the debates in the commons is time consuming.
But ... that's not actually necessary any more, really is it? I mean, how many votes did we have in the recent X-factor, big brother, or strictly come dancing?
Right now, we've got a large proportion of our population telecommunication capable, with more than a few able to 'do' the internet, in some form or other.
So anyway. Hypothetically speaking, if we were to:
1/ Ensure that everyone _did_ have internet capability.
2/ Allow some kind of 'transferrable vote' based democracy, such that you can
either: Vote on an issue yourself or transfer your vote to someone else, on the basis that they will represent your interest.
Could a system of government based around this principle ... even be functional? And would it be better or worse than the current system?
I mean, if you think about it, the reason we have representatives in Parliament, is because of the intrinsic difficulties involved in letting everyone in the country express their opinion - both because of the geographic limitations, and because of time constraints - keeping up with all the debates in the commons is time consuming.
But ... that's not actually necessary any more, really is it? I mean, how many votes did we have in the recent X-factor, big brother, or strictly come dancing?
Right now, we've got a large proportion of our population telecommunication capable, with more than a few able to 'do' the internet, in some form or other.
So anyway. Hypothetically speaking, if we were to:
1/ Ensure that everyone _did_ have internet capability.
2/ Allow some kind of 'transferrable vote' based democracy, such that you can
either: Vote on an issue yourself or transfer your vote to someone else, on the basis that they will represent your interest.
Could a system of government based around this principle ... even be functional? And would it be better or worse than the current system?
