I’m reminded of something Gandhi said: “The problem with the world is that humanity is not in its right mind.” theguardian.com/environment/…

The problem is that oligarchs rule the world and the people have no institutional power to fight back.

Yes we do, actually. Elections.

Elections have proven a poor form of accountability. They are simply the mechanisms through which people select the ruling elite, already pre-selected by parties, which are financed by oligarchs. Electing a good leader is hope but doesn’t fix popular structural disempowerment.

Thomas Jefferson lamented, the same as Condorcet at the other side of the Atlantic, that the US Constitution didn’t institutionalize townhall meetings as sites of popular power and self-government. As @johncusack says, we need to redistribute political power to the common people.

Plus, the electoral mechanism is inherently elitist: We select supposedly ‘the best’, who then do as they please since representatives have free mandate. Common people are only mobilized to vote, but then have no power to enforce the mandates they give to their representatives.

If you are interested in my provocation of popular empowerment beyond representation, @marwilliamson, I have a book coming out in September with @PrincetonUPress: Systemic Corruption. Constitutional Ideas for an Anti-Oligarchic Republic.” I could send you an advance copy. Cheers!