Our current political system is not working. Everyone knows that. Everyone knows that both side lie and cheat the people. Both democrats and republicans look after themselves and our system needs to change. But how can the system change? Stephen has some great work with one amazing idea being: get rid of career politicians.
Brilliant post something that we can work on: how can we eliminate the career politicians in our areas? How can we weed out those who really care vs those that look to manipulate.
Tested in Belgium : Agora and RMC, Two Participatory Democracy Projects in Belgium
1. Agora (Brussels)
Founded in 2018, Agora is a Brussels-based party whose central principle is deliberative democracy through random selection. Its main features are:
- Candidates for elections are randomly selected from among volunteer citizens, not career politicians.
- Once elected, they sit in permanent citizens' assemblies that deliberate collectively before voting.
- Decisions emerge from informed debate rather than party lines.
- The goal is to break the professionalization of politics and make parliament truly representative of the population.
Agora won a seat in the Brussels Parliament in 2019, which allowed it to experiment with this model in practice.
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2. RMC – Rally for the Citizens' Movement
The RMC advocates for a profound reform of institutions through:
- The introduction of direct democracy mechanisms (citizens' initiative referendums, the right to recall elected officials).
- An increased role for citizens' panels in the legislative process.
- Greater transparency and a reduction in the influence of traditional parties on institutions.
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Both parties share a common diagnosis: traditional representative democracy is exhausted, hijacked by party machines disconnected from citizens. Their proposed solutions—sortition, deliberation, citizens' initiatives—are part of the broader trend of democratic renewal sweeping through several European democracies.
Thank you for your comment. My thesis is not that representative democracy has failed. Rather, it fails when electoral districts are so large that elections are all about money and marketing that produce professional politicians who entrench themselves in office by taking campaign funds from the same interests they are supposed to regulate. But the basic idea of electing a trusted neighbor who would serve part-time is still by far the best democratic system for most democratic decision making.
I definitely think that direct democracy is an essential tool, but it should be available to reform political systems and not necessarily to make everyday laws. I worry that big money can easily manipulate direct democracy in cases where the public has not long considered the issue.
I will publish a piece on sortition at some point. IMO, the track record is not good, but I hold out hope that systems of deliberative democracy might be improved. We should start by using it in cases where elected officials have inherent conflicts of interests, like in setting their own pay or drawing district boundaries. The most essential problems are that the public is supposed to trust that the assembly is truly representative and chosen fairly. Who does this choosing and why should we trust them? Second, there is a huge problem when it comes to selecting expert witnesses. Who chooses these witnesses? Who decides how much time each expert POV gets? I was myself just an expert witness for a citizens' assembly in LA that was supposed to advise on city council size. That process was absurd.
To be honest, those democracy projects are still very ”confidential”, RMC by example did not gather enough voices at the last poll to send a representative to the ”Chambre” nor the Senate. My hope is they will grow until next poll... 🤞
Wow! CocotteMinute, thank you for this reference! So now we have real world data to show how this can work! This is amazing! Will be diving and learning more about this!
Don't tell me, it does not matter how long it takes. You'll be eating bugs long before you are done.
Apparently you have no idea of the cabal elements arrayed against us, and since when do seventeen states, IF you could even get seventeen to act, swing a 50-state pendulumn??
I have a very much quicker solution. Approach DC en masse.
Indeed time is the biggest problem, I'm wasting 25 years and still only see people who stit on their hands expecting that I have a magic wand for them.
Our current political system is not working. Everyone knows that. Everyone knows that both side lie and cheat the people. Both democrats and republicans look after themselves and our system needs to change. But how can the system change? Stephen has some great work with one amazing idea being: get rid of career politicians.
Brilliant post something that we can work on: how can we eliminate the career politicians in our areas? How can we weed out those who really care vs those that look to manipulate.
To really get the most of this, check out my piece on: "The Ruling Class" Part https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/the-ruling-class-of-the-united-states
Tested in Belgium : Agora and RMC, Two Participatory Democracy Projects in Belgium
1. Agora (Brussels)
Founded in 2018, Agora is a Brussels-based party whose central principle is deliberative democracy through random selection. Its main features are:
- Candidates for elections are randomly selected from among volunteer citizens, not career politicians.
- Once elected, they sit in permanent citizens' assemblies that deliberate collectively before voting.
- Decisions emerge from informed debate rather than party lines.
- The goal is to break the professionalization of politics and make parliament truly representative of the population.
Agora won a seat in the Brussels Parliament in 2019, which allowed it to experiment with this model in practice.
---
2. RMC – Rally for the Citizens' Movement
The RMC advocates for a profound reform of institutions through:
- The introduction of direct democracy mechanisms (citizens' initiative referendums, the right to recall elected officials).
- An increased role for citizens' panels in the legislative process.
- Greater transparency and a reduction in the influence of traditional parties on institutions.
---
Both parties share a common diagnosis: traditional representative democracy is exhausted, hijacked by party machines disconnected from citizens. Their proposed solutions—sortition, deliberation, citizens' initiatives—are part of the broader trend of democratic renewal sweeping through several European democracies.
Thank you for your comment. My thesis is not that representative democracy has failed. Rather, it fails when electoral districts are so large that elections are all about money and marketing that produce professional politicians who entrench themselves in office by taking campaign funds from the same interests they are supposed to regulate. But the basic idea of electing a trusted neighbor who would serve part-time is still by far the best democratic system for most democratic decision making.
I definitely think that direct democracy is an essential tool, but it should be available to reform political systems and not necessarily to make everyday laws. I worry that big money can easily manipulate direct democracy in cases where the public has not long considered the issue.
I will publish a piece on sortition at some point. IMO, the track record is not good, but I hold out hope that systems of deliberative democracy might be improved. We should start by using it in cases where elected officials have inherent conflicts of interests, like in setting their own pay or drawing district boundaries. The most essential problems are that the public is supposed to trust that the assembly is truly representative and chosen fairly. Who does this choosing and why should we trust them? Second, there is a huge problem when it comes to selecting expert witnesses. Who chooses these witnesses? Who decides how much time each expert POV gets? I was myself just an expert witness for a citizens' assembly in LA that was supposed to advise on city council size. That process was absurd.
I’ll be very interested by your piece to come !
To be honest, those democracy projects are still very ”confidential”, RMC by example did not gather enough voices at the last poll to send a representative to the ”Chambre” nor the Senate. My hope is they will grow until next poll... 🤞
Wow! CocotteMinute, thank you for this reference! So now we have real world data to show how this can work! This is amazing! Will be diving and learning more about this!
Don't tell me, it does not matter how long it takes. You'll be eating bugs long before you are done.
Apparently you have no idea of the cabal elements arrayed against us, and since when do seventeen states, IF you could even get seventeen to act, swing a 50-state pendulumn??
I have a very much quicker solution. Approach DC en masse.
Burn it.
Indeed time is the biggest problem, I'm wasting 25 years and still only see people who stit on their hands expecting that I have a magic wand for them.