Re: [apsa_itp] community law-making, a system based on recombinant text

["Michael Evans" <evans.michael@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Michael,

I actually submitted a short paper to a "collaborative sensemaking"
workshop here at the University of Maryland's 2007 Human-Computer
Interaction conference proposing essentially the same thing. I hope we
will discuss further off-list, but a few brief points:

(1) An obvious "political problem" is that faced by anyone attempting
to implement any serious institutional reform:  those in the best
position to implement such reforms are (almost by definition) those
who most benefit from the institutional status quo, and even those
with the best of intentions tend to be very resistant to reforms that
would threaten their status and influence.  Just look at the history
of attempts to pass serious campaign finance reforms or changing
voting rules to increase turnout or make it possible for (esp.
proportional) representation by alternative parties, and you will see
what you would be up against. It seems to me that the most succesful
reform movements graft institutions onto existing ones rather than
seek to replace them.  One good example is the initiative and
referendum systems that many states adopted in the progressive era:
rather than replace legislatures, they just created an alternative
channel for the people to express their will.

(2) The reason I'm excited by the idea of a Web 2.0 participatory
legislative process is that I think it holds the promise of overcoming
some of the (fatal, in my view) flaws of the initiative and referendum
systems. Most importantly, the process would encourage participants to
"refine and enlarge their views" (to paraphrase Madison's hopeful
description of representative assemblies) and to thus discover their
true preferences in light of greater understanding of the likely long
and short run consequences of alternative courses of action on the
values they hold dear. The initiative and referendum systems do a
terrible job of this and so often create outcomes ultimately disliked
by the majority (worse yet, when they do work, they often do so at the
detriment of vulnerable minorities).

(3) Related to my last point, as your proposal is for a deeply
democratic legislative process (in the strict sense of that term), you
will have to consider the danger of "majority tyranny." If you believe
in the ideal of popular BUT LIMITED government, then thought will need
to be put into how to design this Web 2.0 democracy to give proper
balance between the will of the majority and the rights of minorities.

Regards,

Mike Evans
Doctoral Candidate
University of Maryland
Department of Government and Politics
http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/mevans/

On 8/12/07, Michael Allan <mike@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hello to the list,
>
> I am seeking criticism of this proposed system of legislation:
>
>   Recombinant text [a kind of distributed Wiki] could serve as a
>   medium for the proposal, drafting and enactment of laws...
>   Ultimately, it could serve to transfer full legislative power to the
>   community, where citizens would assume responsiblity for all stages
>   of civil law making...
>
>   1. Any citizen could draft a proposal (bill) for a new law;
>      or the amendment or abrogation of an existing law.
>
>   2. Other citizens (drafters) could copy the bill, modify it,
>      and thus create their own variants (drafts) of it.
>
>   3. Each citizen would have a single vote per bill,
>      which he might use to 'back' any draft of the bill.
>      A drafter could thus aquire a 'constituency' of backers.
>
>   ... and so on
>
>   http://zelea.com/project/textbender/d/overview.xht#Law-Making
>
> It looks to be technically feasible. (I am a software engineer.)
> But what about politically?  Can anyone see a flaw?
>
> --
> Michael Allan
>
> http://zelea.com/
>
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