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2010-06-04

Improve governance under democracy

Comments on Henry Ergas “Going retro with cash grab”, 4/06/2010, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/going-retro-with-cash-grab/story-e6frg6zo-1225875235219
There are a number of issues reflected or implicated in the current RSPT proposal.

Firstly, what was the role of Treasury and Henry in this whole drama from the beginning?

Secondly, if Treasury and Henry had failed the practical test, why didn’t any ALP politicians note the fatal problems with the RSPT proposal?

Thirdly, if both the Treasury and Rudd ministers all had failed the commonsense test before the RSPT hit the reality ground, then why didn’t they recognise its fatal flaws after it has been publically tested?

Fourthly, how can the nation and national government avoid and prevent this kind of public policy failures in the future? What sort of institutional checks and balances are needed to achieve that?

The last point has serious implications for how democracy can operate best.

1 comment:

  1. Improve governance... Improve democracy... Perhaps we should start asking questions about the big picture...

    Do we need a Referendum For A New Democracy?

    Are you concerned about the future of democracy? Do you feel democracy is under attack by extreme greed in countries around the world? Are you sick and tired of: living in fear, corporate greed, growing police state, government for the rich, working more but having less?

    Can we use both elections and random selection (in the way we select government officials) to rid democracy of undue influence by extreme wealth and wealth-dominated mass media campaigns?

    The world's first democracy (Athenian democracy, 600 B.C.) used both elections and random selection. Even Aristotle (the cofounder of Western thought) promoted the use of random selection as the best way to protect democracy. The idea of randomly selecting (after screening) juries remains from Athenian democracy, but not randomly selecting (after screening) government officials. Why is it used only for individual justice and not also for social justice? Who wins from that? ...the extremely wealthy?

    What is the best way to combine elections and random selection to protect democracy in today's world? Can we use elections as the way to screen candidates, and random selection as the way to do the final selection? Who wins from that? ...the people?

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