Democracy needs some tune-ups, to reach its full potential.

Pieces of Democracy

“Democracy” consists of many “puzzle pieces”.

Mankind has already found some of them:

  1. Rule of the people, by the people, for the people.
  2. Periodic elections – to remove bad politicians without violence.
  3. A focus on persuasion – and on the consent of the governed.
  4. The secret ballot – minimizing coercion (and retribution, and bribery, etc).
  5. Parties – their essential quality, as realistic candidates to replace the whole government.

But, the missing pieces, are:

  1. A strict two-party system. We must ban third parties. This is not to restrict choice, but instead to maximize the strength of the opposition party (and maximize the threat it poses to the ruling party).
  2. Pure majority rule. If voter support falls below 50% (in an election), then your party is fired. This directly connects the government to their voters. We must reject “proportional representation”, “electoral college”, “ranked choice voting”, etc.
  3. Strong parties – each party always has one leader at each and every moment. This leader takes responsibility for their party’s mistakes; and they unilaterally choose the nominee (who runs for office). Should this nominee lose the general election, the party leader immediately resigns (and is replaced). The replacement serves as leader of the opposition, criticizing the ruling party on behalf of all citizens.
  4. Party bankruptcy. Any party which loses three consecutive elections should be disbanded. Its leaders should all be fired; and replaced with ordinary citizens, drafted at random. This keeps both parties focused on winning elections – and prevents collusion.
  5. Party Rule -– the winning party must be allowed to implement their agenda. This gives leaders enough rope to hang themselves. “Separation of powers” is an inaccurate term – what’s really going on is “enforcing the rules”.

Learn More

It is essential to have only two parties. For details on why, see “Part 3: Why Two is the Optimal Number of Parties” and “Appendix 2. What To Do If Both Parties Hate You”.

It is essential that each party be ruled by one individual, at any given time. This is because you can blame a person, and hold them accountable for their mistakes, by firing them. After losing an election, the losing party should immediately appoint a new leader – they should not wait until next campaign season. For details, see Part 2: The Pre-Campaign.

Winning the nomination is harder (and more important) than winning the general election. Parties do NOT select their candidate based on merit – hence why we always get two bad candidates. For details, see Part 4: Bad Nominees.

Currently, in the USA, both major parties use the primary system to nominate candidates to the ballot. These primaries are a horrible idea and should be abandoned. For details, see Part 8-a: “These Damn Primaries - A History”.

Instead, the party leader should unilaterally select the candidate. Should this candidate lose the general election, both individuals should immediately be fired. For details see Part 7: The Ideal Democracy.

Interfering with majority rule is a mistake, and leads to problems (such as “jerrymandering” and “apportionment paradoxes”). Instead, each democratic district should form two political parties, and allow voters to hire/fire based on majority rule. This promotes a healthy coexistence of democracies of all shapes and sizes. See Part 5: Districts for details.

“Independent Agencies” cause more problems than they solve – get rid of them and allow the winner implement their platform. The phrase separation of powers is misleading. Instead, we want to “make the Ruling Party vulnerable to competition”. We do this by: enforcing the rules, protecting the Opposition Party, ensuring free and fair elections, deterring tyrants, and enabling realistic impeachment. For details see Part 6: Integrity.

Or read the entire 140+ page essay.

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