Nicholas Coccoma
-11pc
Recent Activity
-
comment
Nicholas Coccoma commented on Unicameralism and Proportional Representation 2021-01-31 12:07:15 -0800Proportional representation is a modest reform that, unfortunately, will not solve the ills of our political system. The same for a unicameral legislature. The countries that have these features still suffer from the electoral pathologies as the United States, namely, the disconnect between the will of the people and the rule of elites. And that is because elections and political parties are inherently oligarchical institutions—they will always lead to capture by political elites divorced from the people. The only way to create democracy is by doing what the ancient Athenians did: use lotteries to select everyday people to govern. As for a unicameral versus bicameral arrangement, a unicameral chamber is not appropriate for democracy by lottery because there are too many functions that would fall to the single chamber. Better to have three chambers, one to handle each function: first, a chamber that sets the legislative agenda; second, a chamber that drafts bills; a third, a citizens’ jury that votes to approve the bills or not.
-
page published
Nicholas Coccoma published Life and Dignity of the Human Person in Amendment Ideas 2020-12-21 17:40:42 -0800
-
page published
-
page published
Nicholas Coccoma published Legislature by Democratic Lottery in Amendment Ideas 2020-12-19 17:10:34 -0800
-
page published
Nicholas Coccoma published Rights of Religion and Belief in Amendment Ideas 2020-12-19 14:36:57 -0800
-
page published
Nicholas Coccoma published Stewardship and Sustainability in Amendment Ideas 2020-12-19 14:20:47 -0800
-
page published
-
page published
Nicholas Coccoma published Rights to Work, Fair Conditions of Employment, and Association in Amendment Ideas 2020-12-19 14:13:58 -0800
-
page published
-
page published
Nicholas Coccoma published Democracy by Lottery in Changing the Constitution 2020-12-14 17:02:53 -0800
-
comment
These reforms are all well and good, but they still operate within the matrix of elections and permanent politicians. As the ancient Athenians knew, and as philosophers like Aristotle and Montaigne argued, elections are themselves the problem. They are aristocratic devices that lead inevitably to oligarchy. As long as we have elections, they will always be corrupted by powerful elites, no matter how many safeguards you erect.
The answer is to return to the system that Athens used: democracy by lottery. Use lotteries to choose everyday Americans to fill the legislature and encourage actual deliberation. It sounds crazy, but Citizens’ Assemblies work today in many European countries -
page published
-
signup