Political Systems... New Balls Please!

So what sort of political system should we have in this modern age? The original democratic system was based on each individual qualifying citizen having his say directly in the Senate at Athens. As cities became bigger we had to move to a system of representation.

All systems of representation are not truly representative of the thoughts of the populace. Now however for the first time since the Athenian age we can provide individual citizens the power to have their say via the Internet. This makes political parties and indeed politicians completely unnecessary!



Here is the type of system that I propose would make an ideal substitution for parliament.

1. Every year all eligable citizens would be issued with a unique 20 character identification, linked to their name. They can log into the peoples parliament site using their surname and the 20 character ID code.

2. Via a forum system on the site any citizen may sponsor a bill if they can get 100 votes from other citizens. The citizen writes the draft of the bill which is then passed to a civil service cleric for research into the practicalities of implementation and emerges no later than three months after submission as an official first draft.

3. The first draft is published for criticisms and people write notes on what they see as the good and bad points. After one month the bill is withdrawn for redrafting and republished as a final draft one month later.

4. The bill is voted on as a whole, people voting on the bill have to prove that they have read the bill by getting an 80% pass mark on a multiple choice test based on the bills contents.

5. If the bill is declined it cannot be resubmitted in any form for 12 months.

6. If the bill is passed it goes into the refinement stage. Every clause is similarly voted on to be good or bad. Clauses voted bad are subjected to revision as per 3 above and those judged to be good are passed to be included.

7. The final bill is now presented on the website for an adoption vote. People who dislike the bill may post articles on why they dislike it, people who are for the bill can post articles stating why it is a good idea. After one month these articles are frozen and 5 days of voting begins.
People voting on the bill have to prove that they have read the arguments by getting an 80% pass mark on a multiple choice test based on the contents of the pro and con arguments.

8. The bill goes into legislation or is demoted back to step 3 above.

In this way everybody can have their say on subjects they feel strongly about and hopefully a more correct legislation will result because people who feel strongly on an issue often have more knowledge.