Sounds like Switzerland. I think it works well there. But the Swiss make a virtue of civic duty, and, IIUC, voting is frequent and somewhat compulsory, which I imagine tends to sustain an informed electorate.
If you don't have an informed electorate, then you're in danger of Brexit. I could paste my previous, but let's just say that sheep exist to be fleeced.
I read quite a bit on Swiss democracy and the causality seems to be the other way around than politicians elsewhere always claim. Having lots of referenda on many levels (local, cantonal, federal) increases voter participation and makes people more informed and involved in politics.
I agree - I'd call it a virtuous cycle. Although I suppose there's a time and effort cost.
But I dint see how, e.g. the UK, could get there from here. If we started having six referenda a year, I foresee the electorate largely switching off, leaving only the rabid and the pensioners. They don't need any more influence.
If we campaigned for this change, the campaign won't survive its first day. There's nothing in it for the legacy media, and it's not snappy enough to go viral.
Perhaps if we first moved to coalition-based politics, the way would open to direct democracy? I anyway like coalition-based politics on its own merits, which I hope would be:
- increased voter information and engagement
- moving discourse from identity politics to issues
- reduce the power of media interests
- offer choices between broad manifestos and single-issue campaigns
- enfranchise people not represented by the current dominant parties
- capture voter preferences more accurately
- reduce the cyclical nature of government
- due to which, promote long-term thinking
Germany looks like a happy example; Israel looks like a problematic one. Israel suffers from an intolerant minority; from here, the tail looks to be wagging the dog on all the big issues, which is not a healthy dynamic. I think that's particular to that nation, though.
Coalition politics is still a very tough sell in countries with FPTP. We'd have to start by abolishing that.
Every time I think through a political issue, I arrive at the same conclusion: the most pressing issue for the UK and America is the abolition of FPTP. It's frustrating.
