Comment Re:The real Internet Party, liquid democracy,in Sp (Score 1) 291
That sounds like a great selling point, but I think you're glossing over the fundamental criticism of democracy expressed by people since Plato, which is, basically, that it's mob rule.
If I'm an artist insulting some religious icon and the mob is screaming for my head, the whole point of limiting democracy is that the mob doesn't get what it wants. They have no right to censor my speech, ergo one person can tell millions to go fuck themselves. Enumerated powers, checks and balances, representative democracy, confederation, all of these are tools to limit mob rule.
We have a constitution, and it must be obeyed. The mob cannot censor speech because any law would be against it and the Supreme Court would go against such law.
But your system puts no bar on the tyranny of the majority. Worse still, no one will care who represents them since they can overrule them any time they want, so with no purpose and guidance from voters, those representatives are really just there to enrich themselves through corruption.
The executive power represents the country and within the law they can do whatever they want, so yeah people should care about them. The proxy representatives in the legislative chamber have no power because they always have to vote what people tell them to, so they cannot be corrupted in that way, and the delegates in which people delegate via internet voting are the ones with real power, but their vote is public and if they corrupt, people can instantly change their delegation, which acts as a check and balance system.
You talk about the tyranny of the mob, but the real tyranny I know of is that of the rich and powerful minority, the one we have been suffering in this "democracy". Surely any democratic system is far from perfect, but a liquid democracy puts a bar on the current biggest problem, the rich and powerful minority. They won't be able to convince as easily the mob to do whatever they want as a few congressmen and senators, and anyway at any time the mob realizes they have been tricked it will never be too late to change back the law, something really really difficult with other systems.
Will the "mob" enact stupid laws? Sure, but as Former Google CIO suggest, doing dumb things might not be that bad. And really, can it get much worse than the current system? The current check and balances does not work, and I think liquid democracy will work much better and transparently.