{"id":85,"date":"2012-09-05T10:50:17","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T16:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/lockesmith\/?p=85"},"modified":"2012-09-05T10:50:17","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T16:50:17","slug":"in-defense-of-indirectness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/lockesmith\/2012\/09\/05\/in-defense-of-indirectness\/","title":{"rendered":"In Defense of Indirectness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jason Brennan has written a book (The Ethics of Voting<\/em><\/a>) in which he (apparently) makes the case that it is unethical for some people to vote.\u00a0 I say \u201capparently,\u201d because I haven\u2019t read it, and so am working from a blog<\/a> posting about the book (on the publisher\u2019s website).\u00a0 I\u2019m also working more-or-less from memory, because this is less about his thesis and more about an idea it spurred in me.<\/p>\n

To begin, Brennan argues that \u201cmost people have a moral duty to abstain from voting.\u201d\u00a0 Voting outcomes are imposed through coercion; if you (through incompetence, negligence, or malfeasance) contribute to a bad outcome that is imposed on others, you have acted unethically.\u00a0 Thus, the \u201cpolitically incompetent\u201d should not vote.<\/p>\n

This thought seems to spur all sorts of moral outrage.\u00a0 But should it?\u00a0 How many times have you watched a \u201creality\u201d television program and thought, \u201cThose people can vote–in elections\u201d with a sudden accompanying depression?\u00a0 The votes of those who decide how to vote based on coin flips, skin color, how \u201cnice\u201d the candidate\u2019s name or appearance is, or even secret messages they find encoded in Oliver Stone films count the same as yours or mine.\u00a0 Ever watch \u201cJaywalking\u201d episodes with Jay Leno?\u00a0 People who can\u2019t identify our nation\u2019s geographic neighbors or spell (let alone understand) \u201ccomparative advantage\u201d cast votes that influence our foreign policy.\u00a0 Two final words on the subject: Paris and Hilton.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not frightened by now, we truly are desensitized.<\/p>\n

I should point out that we already make this decision in some cases.\u00a0 We have decided that children should not vote, presumably because they lack the cognitive capacity or experience necessary to link consequences to actions or to appreciate their gravity.\u00a0 We do not, to the best of my knowledge, allow the insane to vote (again, understanding and evaluating consequences), and felons are often excluded as well (presumably because they have already shown an inability to put common interests in peace and good order over their individual desires).<\/p>\n

Of course, this is where the rubber hits the road: identifying those who shouldn\u2019t vote.\u00a0 I suspect this is the source of the moral outrage (or at the very least, discomfort).\u00a0 Making the claim that some people shouldn\u2019t vote carries with it the suggestion that the claimant already has a list in mind, whether based on skin color, ideology, or pocketbook (and before you make assumptions, folks have advocated both directions on most of those).\u00a0 Perhaps we instinctively sense that no one should be entrusted with the power to decide who shouldn\u2019t vote, because of the moral hazard (the incentive to do the wrong thing) involved.\u00a0 After all, isn\u2019t the fact that you don\u2019t agree with me evidence of your faulty mental processes?\u00a0 I’m sorry, Dave–I can\u2019t let you vote that way.<\/p>\n

In fairness to Mr. Brennan, he does not advocate someone else making that decision.\u00a0 His quest is to educate voters to self-select, and is fully aware that those most likely to fail the self-administered exam are those least likely to administer it (or to administer it correctly).\u00a0 My first thought, though, was that our Founders weren\u2019t terribly convinced of the abilities of the common voter, either.\u00a0 Granted, the Progressives were quite certain\u2014after all, they voted for Progressives, so that proved they were able\u2014and so they undid some of the protections the Founders built.<\/p>\n

Take, for example, the idea of indirect election (such as we once used for the U.S. Senate, and tried to use for the U.S. President).\u00a0 How does electing someone to elect someone change the political calculus?\u00a0 I happened also to be reading The Dictator\u2019s Handbook<\/em><\/a> by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alistair Smith when a friend forwarded me the link to Brennan\u2019s blog.\u00a0 One of the points in the book is that leaders pay attention to those who are necessary to keep the leaders in power.\u00a0 In autocracies, that group is smaller than in democracies, and that produces differences in policies.\u00a0 Essentially, democratic leaders have to bribe much larger groups of people<\/p>\n

Granted, the policies in democracies tend to be better for most of us than those in autocracies.\u00a0 This need to provide favors to a wider range means we have less strip mining and more siphoning.\u00a0 That is, rather than stripping assets (and liberty) to transfer to the inner circle (be it junta or politburo), we get budget deficits and a slow occluding of the arteries of freedom (that’s me, not BDM and Smith).<\/p>\n

Is there, however, a way to do better?\u00a0 Can we improve on the Progressive ideal of mass democracy?\u00a0 Indirect elections may be able to help us.\u00a0 Granted, I doubt they will be a panacea, and that\u2019s assuming we tame the devils in the details.\u00a0 After all, the Progressives campaigned to let the sunlight of popular democracy into smoky back room for a reason.\u00a0 But let\u2019s look at what we might gain, before we start filling it full of holes.<\/p>\n

In essence, indirect election can change the question from \u201cwhich candidate promises me the most?\u201d to \u201cwhich person do I trust to choose a candidate for me?\u201d\u00a0 Electors cannot promise favors once in office (assuming those chosen as electors cannot also be candidates), because their office is transitory, and consists of only one activity\u2014casting a vote for a candidate<\/p>\n

Likewise, the office holder does not know whose support they must cultivate, whose favor they must curry.\u00a0 So long as electors are not continuing positions, but are chosen to cast a vote and discharged as soon as they have, there is no group whose particular support is necessary to staying in office.\u00a0 The office holder must deliver (and the candidate endorse) policies with the broadest possible benefit, because this maximizes the likelihood that an elector will view them favorably.<\/p>\n

The weaknesses of this are that, much like the Electoral College, electors must not be beholden to any interest, including parties.\u00a0 As it stands with that institution, parties choose loyal members, and voters choose between parties.\u00a0 Electors should not be able to promise how they will vote, otherwise we re-establish the link allowing office holders to identify narrower slices of the public to serve.\u00a0 This will make electors not a screen for particular interests, but a conduit, and give them the incentive to bargain their services (to collude, as party machines).\u00a0 This means, in all practicality, that electors should not be able to campaign.<\/p>\n

So how do we elect people who cannot campaign?\u00a0 One solution would be to select people by lot, as with juries.\u00a0 We might then also wish to have voir dire, allowing opposing parties to object to particular selections, and a judge to arbitrate their objections.\u00a0 Certainly not incorruptible, but a model with a respectable track record.<\/p>\n

Another alternative would be to reduce the scale of voting.\u00a0 Allow people to vote in much smaller groups, and allow them to list the three people they know whom they\u2019d trust to vote on their behalf.\u00a0 Then take the top finisher (or top few).\u00a0 Electors would not need to campaign\u2014the problem, though, is that they likely would, just informally.\u00a0 Since they would know their intentions, they would have reason to contact parties or candidates for support, and again create narrow alliances in whose conflict the public good will be disregarded.<\/p>\n

Obviously, the idea has limitations, but it also has some promise.\u00a0 If only we can figure out how to hold it to its promises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jason Brennan has written a book (The Ethics of Voting) in which he (apparently) makes the case that it is unethical for some people to vote.\u00a0 I say \u201capparently,\u201d because I haven\u2019t read it, and so am working from a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/lockesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/lockesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/lockesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/lockesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/lockesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/lockesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/lockesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/lockesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/lockesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/lockesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}