"Some people love money and get into politics. If they love money so much, they should get into commerce, industry, or do whatever they want - it's no sin. But politics is for serving the people." - José Mujica

The athenians knew elections created a self-serving oligarchy. Only wealthy citizens have the means, and motivation to seek public office. Also, it is inherent in human nature to want to associate ourselves with successful people. Therefore, citizens will want to vote for candidates that are successful.

The athenians created a system where most public offices were filled by a board of citizens selected by lottery. Citizens had to be qualified before they could serve public office. We use a similar process to this day with jury duty.

There are many different ways to elect representatives. How we elect representatives determines who we elect. This is obvious when you compare an election with a lottery system, but it's not so obvious when you compare different types of election systems with each other.

Elections are deceptively simple. You vote for one person, and we consider that to be fair and democratic. Unfortunately, that couldn't be further from the truth.

The major problem with current voting systems is something called vote splitting. When there are two similar candidates, they will tend to split votes amongst themselves for the benefit of their mutual opponent. Traditionally, this is called the spoiler effect. Even if the two similar candidates get a combined total of 60% (split 30-30), their opponent will win with 40% of the vote.

The solution to vote splitting is to allow voters to express their opinion about more than one candidate, and then use that information with a deterministic method to ensure the candidate that is elected is the candidate that is supported by the majority of the electorate. This is no easy task.

The simplest method to eliminate vote splitting is to allow voters to select more-than-one candidate in an election. The 'one person, one vote' mantra holds true as each voter still has an equal voice at the ballot box.

Another method to eliminate vote splitting is to allow voters to rank the candidates in order of preference. The votes are tabulated based on first preference, and the candidate with the fewest first place preferences is eliminated from the race. However, the ballots associated with the candidate are not thrown away. Instead, the ballots associated with the candidate in last place are transferred to the 2nd preference indicated on each respective ballot. This process continues until one candidate has a majority of votes.

This is what democracy looks like.

/r/quotes Thread