Political Meritocracy

Representative Democracy may be considered a political meritocracy. Politicians are chosen by their party and, in theory, win elections based on their merit. The best of them gain the support of their peers to become leaders and senior figures. Long standing and experienced politicians may be appointed to the House of Lords.

All good stuff on the face of it. But being good at one thing, indeed many things, doesn't make you good at everything, and politics is a vastly diverse subject. No one person is likely able to master all of it. In reality meritocracy is more complicated and corruptible than the ideal:

1. How does the old boy network effect who is chosen to become a candidate?
2. Does the electorate vote for politicians or parties; do they judge the candidate effectively?
3. Does the best funded or the most capable candidate/party, win?
4. Can students of Machiavelli play the system and gain power?
5. Are Honours given fairly or is there bias in appointments to the Lords?
6. If meritocracy was perfect, wouldn't we be able to find the single best candidate to make decisions for us (someone the ancient Greeks called the aristoi, root of the word aristocrat)?

Though imperfect, I think the current political meritocracy needs to be a key element in the Interactive Democracy system because we need politicians to formulate laws, man committees, debate proposals, form governments and act in opposition. ID just allows public sentiment to flow into this process and check the results of it.

Interactive Democracy adds a meritocracy of ideas to the meritocracy of politicians, where the best proposals can jump through hurdles of debate and ballot to become policy.

Here's an interesting article about educational meritocracy from asiaone.

Aristocracy

The historian Herodotus (c.485-425BC) wrote about the Athenian state, "nothing could be found better than the one man, the best." Thucydides (c.460-c.400BC) commented "It was in theory, a democracy, but in fact it became the rule of the first Athenian." The word used for this singular and exceptional man was aristoi, the word from which we derive aristocracy. Interestingly the concept of the aristoi grew from Pericles' ideal of merit or meritocracy.

There are problems with this concept of rule by the best:

• How do you define best; best at what? Are they good at everything?
• A few people cannot know everything; they cannot experience it all.
• The majority are seldom motivated to carry out the wishes of the few; the ethic of citizenship is involvement.

These are the same problems that Representative Democracy faces and the issues that Interactive Democracy addresses.

The Athenian Assembly around 450BC numbered about 21000 citizens and was by today's standards quite tiny. Plato's ideal was a state of no more than 5040 voters who should know each others qualities. However, with modern technology, it will be possible to integrate many millions of voters into the democratic ideal.

More on the Athenian Origins of Direct Democracy here.

Meritocracy

Some would argue that the Party Political system of democracy that we have here today is a meritocracy: the best party members are promoted by their peers to become candidates, Members of Parliament, Members of Cabinet or even the Prime Minister. Even though budding Machiavellis, lady luck and human bias conspire to distort the ideal of meritocracy, Interactive Democracy (ID) does not prevent this time honoured process of appointing politicians. To this meritocracy of people, ID adds a meritocracy of ideas. Each one reviewed by the populace and parliament, promoted or declined, one at a time.