this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
5 points (72.7% liked)

Socialism

5184 readers
38 users here now

Rules TBD.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

When I looked at the different political systems currently in place around the world. I noticed one core issue. Power corrupts people, be it democratic elected, rich or authoritarian there is always an incentive to abuse said power for personal gain. It also attracts people who strive for power, who usually experienced a lack of control in life and are unsatisfied.

In an ideal world politicians should work for the good of the people, but that seems impossible in current systems.

So how do you build a system that doesn't insitivise using political power for personal gain. I think it is a rather tricky question.

Some of the ideas I had feel free to discuss:

  • Strictly limit the legislative period without exception. (minimizing the time exposed to power and possibility to using it for personal gain)
  • A politicians elected get permanently limited in their private posetions, in exchange for the opportunity to change policy. (you need to give away personal benefits in order to gain power)
  • Punishment for thresholds of personal gains. In our capitalist society for example, I cannot imagine any billionaire, who did not exploit and therefore use violence against other people in order to reach these riches. I think it is fair to assume, that no one can reach this amount of wealth, without any moral wrong doing. It therefore could be classified as a crime and procecuted as such.

Any criticism and ideas are welcome. I'm no expert, so excuse me if I got something wrong. These are just ideas.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] eezeebee@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (6 children)

How about we just vote on everything. Any time there's a change, the voting app or website lets you log your vote.

[–] GregorGizeh@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

The problem with that is that the average citizen cannot possibly keep up with and stay informed on all issues that the government makes decisions on, and for the most part they don’t want to have to either.

That is why representative systems were created in the first place, so the average person would not have to bother with politics and instead would vote for someone they trust to represent their interests for a while.

[–] Apinae@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

Check out Liquid Democracy.

The problem with representative systems are that you're forced to trust the person you elected will actually represent your interests after they get given power, which invariably never happens.

There's also no mechanism to revoke that power during their term, so they're free to do whatever they (or their lobbyist backers) want, without your consent.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)