Life in the Rear-view Mirror

Government Without Politicians: a Return to Real Democracy

The current North American lifestyle is not sustainable, and the path to sustainability is very different than the one we're on. To change path requires a coordinated approach of unprecedented scale, which is only possible if we have responsible Government with a long-term horizon. Sadly, the Government we have is a far cry from the one we need!

Is it possible to have government without politicians? It sounds like a dream, but some dreams do come true.

This is my dream.

Replace politicians with ordinary citizens called to duty for short periods, just as we do in the judicial branch of government, when they are called upon to sit on juries and adjudicate cases. In the same way, we can call on them to help perform the functions of all branches of government: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.

The workhorse of Government is the civil service and, by and large, it comprises professional and competent people. What is needed is a supervisory board that reviews and directs the work of the civil service.

This board, or Executive Council of Citizens (ECC), would have similar functions as a corporate Board of Directors. Members of the ECC would be selected at random, as is the case for jury participants, and would serve for a fixed period, after which they would return to their normal jobs, protected by law, just as they are for jury service.

The fact that they are not professional politicians means that they don't have to worry about re-election. In fact, elections would be eliminated and the party system would completely disappear. Therefore, the ECC would not be beholden to anyone and could perform its duties free from external influences. The bonus would be a huge saving in pensions and benefits paid to people whose major contribution has been the bankruptcy of the government they serve.

The ECC would perform the function of the "chief executive" and Cabinet. There would be no single person in charge. The heads of the various government departments would report directly to it, and would be responsible for developing policy and budgets.

The ECC would review both the Policies and the Budgets of the various Departments, and would approve them as deemed appropriate, by a majority vote.

But what happens when there are meetings with other heads of state, for example G7 or G20 meetings? You can't have the entire Council attend such meetings.

When such meetings, or other similar situations occur, such as head of state visits, etc., the ECC would decide, by majority vote, which of its members would represent the Council at such events. Clearly, the Council would be motivated to choose the best-qualified members to represent it and the State. But as the ECC composition changes periodically, the Council representatives would change as well.

How long a term would members of the Council be expected to serve?

Given that each citizen is expected to go back to his former job, it would be unreasonable both to the individual and to the employer to have a long term. Nevertheless, universities allow professors to take a year sabbatical leave, and some corporations have also become amenable to such arrangements. Therefore, a one-year term could be considered reasonable, but certainly not beyond that.

The mechanism of rotation would be such that new members would replace one quarter of the ECC every three months, so that there would always be continuity.

How many members would the Council have?

Experience with corporate Boards of Directors suggests that twelve is a good number, whereas twice that would be unwieldy, and would be an upper limit.

The Legislative Branch of government would be reformed the same way. A Legislative Council of Citizens (LCC), selected at random as in the case of the ECC, would replace the entire Congress, or Parliament.