Comment by Henchman21
2 days ago
Is it quite right that the public gets ignored all the time?
How do you force your representatives to actually represent their constituents?
2 days ago
Is it quite right that the public gets ignored all the time?
How do you force your representatives to actually represent their constituents?
I have just described how the public drives the democratic process to ensure everyone gets a voice, not just whoever shouts the loudest. That's the opposite of ignoring the public.
That's the nice-sounding theory, but I don't see any metrics on how well it works in practice. MPs aren't required to share the input from the public or publish lists of how they voted on every issue prior to elections. Representative democracy really includes very little accountability for the legislators.
It certainly works better than to govern according to whoever shouts the louder.
Petitions have a place, which is to inform of a point of view and of the opinion of a portion of the public. That's a form of lobbying. But that's it, we should certainly not expect that a law be repelled because of a petition, and rightly so.
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If the public truly drove the democratic process we'd have proportional representation or something other than the current system.