Your alternatives to democracy
Entries to the March writing prompt.
I invited you all to come up with an alternative to democracy and you did not disappoint! This was such a fun collaborative worldbuilding exercise!
Here are some of my favorite entries. I’m numbering them so we can talk about the various proposals in the comments.
1. A Wikocracy, by
I wrote about a form of direct democracy in which leaders rise through the ranks of the public trust rather than elected as politicians.
2. Direct democracy but make it AI, by
imagines a future where AI provides all of the data for our direct democracy. We are all constantly online, so imagine that we have frequent but short opinion polls that pop up. When combined, these polls paint a real-time, dynamic portrait of public sentiment on each topic that the populous cares about, the AI then takes the people's will into account in its decisions. We don’t eliminate humans from the system we increase their participation.
3. A return to Israel’s “Judges” period, by
makes an interesting case for a return to Israel’s “judges” period. Back then everyone ruled themselves but could come to the “judges” to settle any disputes they could not solve on their own. This group of individuals would be the final say on various matters on a case-by-case basis as well as raise a volunteer army as needed. Unlike ancient Israel, however, Tom would like to see these judges democratically elected via ranked-choice voting. 4. One world government (with smaller local parts), by
uses Plato’s “Head, Chest, and Abdomen” theory to construct a world government comprised of a seven-member council that serves a 20-year term, a congress of delegates from every nation-state, another congress made up of the people (and chosen by lot, a lot like jury duty or mandatory military service!), plus two other smaller governing bodies that support those systems. 
5. The family is the center of every government decision, by
would like to see the family unit at the center of every decision. Actually, the take is very similar to the family- and community-based society in Herland, where every decision is made for the benefit of the next generation! Skeptic imagines all of the ways the world would be different if that were the frame. 
6. The more engaged you are the more your vote counts, by
imagines a direct democracy that incentivizes engagement by giving you more votes. If you vote on a new AI policy, for example, your vote counts once. But if you’ve also read the literature about it your vote counts twice. If you’ve read the literature and participated in the discussion about it your vote counts three times. Could this encourage the people who are most engaged and knowledgeable about a subject to have more of a say?
7. The right amount of democracy, by
If we were starting a government from scratch on Mars what would it look like? This is the frame of
’s piece and I love it. Talking about the finer details of government isn’t always exciting, but this frame made it so! He goes through several options: a parliamentary system modeled after Denmark, privatized banking like New Zealand, a direct democracy like Singapore, an open democracy. He’s looking for the Goldilocks standard: just the right amount of democracy.
8. Vote the worst person into office then do the opposite of everything they say, by
It’s opposite day in
’s fictional and absurdist take on democracy. We vote the worst possible person into office then we do the opposite of everything he says. “So when Lucifer said, ‘We should put more money into our military, maybe take some pot shots in some cities to keep people on their toes,’ money was stripped back from the military and put into infrastructure.” It’s worth reading the whole thing to see how things turn out for our ruthless dictator who accidentally made the world a better place. I laughed out loud on this one!
9. A lottocracy, an outside submission from :
What if we get rid of elections, and choose every government official by lottery? A random sampling of our population—including doctors and business executives and blue-collar workers and stay-at-home moms and dads—might have some good ideas about what we should do with our country. That’s the subject of this post and I have to say, I’m a fan!
Let us know your thoughts on these various proposals in the comments!
We don’t necessarily need a new form of government. We need our current government to follow the constitution. Term limits are a start. The elimination of lobbyists would go a long way. Anyone who worked in government can’t then work for a corporation and go back to lobby the government. The corporate-government revolving door is a huge problem. The government can’t serve two masters. Either it serves the people, as was designed, or it serves corporate interests. It can’t do both.
Thanks for sharing Elle, they're all fascinating ! Mine had a part two as well btw https://open.substack.com/pub/shonistar/p/if-we-had-direct-democracy-would?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=9fely