ChristianKl comments on Politics: an undervalued opportunity to change the world? - Less Wrong
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I am not into politics at all, but I think if you could change the following it would improve the political process. Currently politics seems to be based on arguing your position and gaining status for your team rather than seeking truth and the best policy.
A democracy is only as strong as the people that are people in it. It seems to me like politicians too often dwell on inconsequential, but politically important issues. They do this because voters care about these issues. The thing is, though, that voters are most often laymen. They are not experts. Therefore, I find it worrisome that politicians seem to discuss and change policies in order to placate voters. Obviously the opinions of voters should still matter, but when it comes to where politicians spend their effort and time. This should be based on what will provide the most benefit. I see two ways to overcome this: somehow get the voters more informed or change the political process somehow, this is related to the first point, so that there is less showboating, sycophantism and placation to the whims of voters.
Politicians need to become more aware of complexity and the feedback caused by their policies. Understanding system dynamics would help tremendously in this regard.
The complexity of politics that these arguments demonstrate (and the "error of the crowds" itself) makes democracy a seemingly futile solution to government. It would take an enormously skilled tactician to win the vote by selling actually useful policies to a population that prefers simple rhetoric aligning with their color.
They would need:
But someone who wants power really only needs rhetoric and a PR team that can find them the correct issues to align with. There is something wrong here.
Teenage me, with rather too much confidence, would say that we need a benevolent dictator. Now, with rather less confidence in my world-organizing abilities, I prefer voluntarism in some form. It is... less of a lottery and far more elegant. I just need to figure out if it's too idealistic to work.
That presupposes that you have to win election by explaining the policies that you honestly want to enact. In reality that's not how modern representative democracy work. Neither how it works in practice nor how it works in theory.
True, but you do need a platform that promises, at the very least, a direction that your policies are taking you. If, during your term, you completely neglect everything you talked about while running, you'll take a hit in the next election (unless you've miraculously been so effective during those 4/5 years that everyone is convinced you know better than them).
And if the point is to be the best liar and then do what you want in office, uh, why even have elections?
Obama never talked about how children's IQ would be higher in the future because his administration calculated the dollar value of children's IQ's and opposed it to the costs of reduces mercury pollution.
The policy was done by the EPA with very little public debate.
On the other hand the EPA didn't get done much on global warming where there's massive media attention.
To allow voters to refuse to reelect politicians with bad track records. If democracy is done right, politicians who mess up don't get reelected.
If it comes to decide whether to vote for a politician's you don't focus on what he promises for the future but what he did in the past. That provides for democratic accountability.
To choose representatives and not to choose policy.
If I look at Bernie Sanders I know that he engaged in good policy for decades. He voted against the Iraq war and the patriotic act. That tells me much more about him than any promise he makes before the election.
Bush campaigned on "no statebuilding" and then went to do very expensive statebuilding in Iraq or Afghanistan without the Republican base complaining. The Republican didn't like Clinton's intervention against Kosovo, so it made sense for Bush to run with "no statebuilding".
Obama promised to clean up Wall Street but did nothing substantial. He engaged in busywork and passed laws but they are more symbolic than real reform.