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The information on Groklaw is not intended to constitute legal advice. While Mark is a lawyer and he has asked other lawyers and law students to contribute articles, all of these articles are offered to help educate, not to provide specific legal advice. They are not your lawyers.

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I Think You Missed The Point... | 305 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
I Think You Missed The Point...
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 25 2012 @ 05:17 PM EDT
Eh...this could create some real flexibility issues.
(Sometimes an election manifesto really just becomes
outdated.)

I do like some of the work Darrel Issa's been doing towards
crowd-sourced laws. (don't quite like his politics...) It
would be quite helpful if the default process for bills was
considerably more open than it is.

--Erwin

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

I Think You Missed The Point...
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 25 2012 @ 06:51 PM EDT
Manifesto's, what are they? Certainly not an indication of what the politicians
intend too do.

The late ex prime minister, Robert Muldoon, of New Zealand was one who when
asked why he was not doing something in the parties manifesto said something
along the lines "that's something we put out to give voters something to
look at. It's not what we are going to do."

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

I Think You Missed The Point...
Authored by: Wol on Monday, June 25 2012 @ 07:14 PM EDT
What happens if both the Labtive and Conservour parties both agree on doing
whatever it is? How do you vote against it? Especially if it's a two-horse
election?

Cheers,
Wol

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

The Inconvenience of Context
Authored by: sproggit on Tuesday, June 26 2012 @ 01:22 AM EDT
This answer uses the specific history of the UK for context. YMMV [Your Mileage
May Vary].

The UK political process [note use of term 'political' and not 'democratic' is
to hold a General Election at least once every 5 years and then to empower those
elected representatives to act on behalf of those people who represented them.

Except, particularly when it comes to major issues, those elected rarely act
with the wishes of those who represented them.

<Brief historic interlude> The principle of common consent was first
enshrined in the Magna Carta (which first passed into law in 1225. [the 1297
version remains on the statute books today]). The real power of parliament grew
from the need of the King (Henry III) to raise revenue to fund military
campaigns. Records show that in 1328 the parliament was held in York, and
representatives of London twice wrote home to inform their constituents of
progress.</Brief historic interlude>

Underlying this principle of electing someone to represent the interests of a
district or borough in a nation's parliament came the realisation that it was
not feasible for all citizens to attend in person. In the 14th century the
fastest means of transport was horseback. The journey from London to York (200
miles) would have taken a week or more, and the same time to return.

Thus we developed the notion of elected representatives.

Well, the world has changed, and not just in terms of the physical journey time
required to travel from London to York [on a good day...]. The real change has
come about through non-obvious mechanisms such as, believe it or not, the
Telephone, the National Lottery Network and the Internet. Together, these
communication mechanisms would enable any entitled UK citizen to register their
views on any topic of national interest, at minimal operational cost to the
state.

Of course there's a problem with that. The "problem" is that if we
were to empower a people to take greater ownership and responsibility for their
lives through a greater degree of interaction with the state, then the need for
and power of elected representatives would diminish considerably. The power of
the "political class" would be significantly curtailed.

There is no reason save politicians' self-preservation why this has not happened
today.

To get all the way back to the original point... we might find that a mechanism
such as this, which both reduced the power of elected representatives to change
laws without the oversight of the populace, coupled with greater transparency of
what's left of the political process, may actually result in fewer laws that
seem to act against the common good...

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Do you know everything about a job before you start it?
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 26 2012 @ 03:45 PM EDT
Reality often changes our best plans. As a politician I may make promises with
the best of intentions and fully plan to implement the changes only to find that
there are hidden issues and blocks to actually carrying them out. It's like
getting advice from a friend, there are lots of simple answers that just won't
work because of things that are beyond the simple problem. The answer is
rarely, Just do this and it will be fixed.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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