Polis Preparation: The New Democracy

https://polis.nhiro.org/2fsjcfkkpz

from Diary 2024-06-26 Polis Preparation: The New Democracy

• The current public office election laws need to be amended.
• Digital democracy should not be equated with online voting.
• (Q: Can secret ballots be protected by online voting?) There are options for making the will of the people visible without the need for anonymity, for example by digitizing signatures.
• (Q: Online voting requires revision of the Public Offices Election Law, so it cannot be done under the authority of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.) The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is already making decisions by voting that are not subject to the Public Offices Election Law, such as participatory budgeting. Better to expand this first.
• In considering a new democracy, we need to consider the diverse aspects of current democracy
• People are too busy to listen to others, so they need AI assistance.
• The world would be a better place if we had an easy way to obtain “evidence of the will of the people.”
• The means to obtain “evidence of the will of the people” should be open to legislators and citizens, not just the governor.
• If every legislator and every citizen had a communication interface with an AI assistant, the dialogue would take place over HTTPS, 10,000 times faster than with humans, and the will of the people could be reflected quickly.
• Direct voting on the agenda would be a fast means of ascertaining the will of the people.
• Direct voting on the agenda should not be the final decision-making tool, but an aid to human decision-making
• It is educationally beneficial to visualize direct voting by minors on issues as the will of the people of future generations and to use it as a reference for voters to cast their ballots.
• The right to submit an agenda item to be voted on should be released to citizens.
• Visualizing what kind of policies people expect increases the likelihood that society will change for the better.
• To make policies based on data and facts, verifiable facts should be collected extensively.
• Secret ballots are not a requirement for democracy.
• One person, one vote is not a requirement for democracy.
• If we believe that “one person, one vote” is important, then the lack of voting rights for minors is a discriminatory situation against future generations and we should insist on improvements
• Online, text-based discussions are important because they are less time-constrained and allow many people to participate in the discussion
• Productive discussions on social networking sites are difficult because there are no moderators, and they would be better if an AI moderated them.
• Reform of work styles using digital technology is inevitable.
• Decentralized social media by citizens can improve the problem of corruption going unreported due to collusion between media and politicians
• Discussion forums need to be designed so that human aggression does not cause harm to others
• If there is a place where you can freely propose an agenda, you will have the opportunity to discover and solidarity with others who are close to you and your interests.
• It is important to increase what people can do through open source and civic tech activities by citizen engineers
• Politics and open source projects are the same in terms of collective decision-making
• It is important to lower the hurdles to running for office
• Digital technology brings new ways for people to communicate

- Deliberation is an important element in democracy - Deliberation, not voting, is the key. - Before voting, participants need the opportunity to share information and understand different perspectives and values - It is important for citizens to influence political decision-making through deliberation, not just the act of voting - Deliberation is a process that aims to build consensus beyond conflicting opinions, and voting without deliberation is not an appropriate method of collective decision-making. - Mere majority rule would be tyranny by the majority. - Deliberations promote cooperation and social cohesion - Participation of the entire citizenry in political decision-making is important for democracy. - Discussion, dialogue, and exchange of ideas are important for better social decision-making - Political decisions should be made not only by representatives elected by vote, but also by reference to the statistical data of citizens' voices.

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