Owls, Doughnuts, and Democracy (ODD)
Direct Democracy
Direct democracy is the idea that every person can vote on issues before government directly. Direct democracy is the purest form of democracy or rule of the people. Ancient Athens had direct democracy. The cantonal assembles in Switzerland make decision with direct democracy today. Wikipedia has much more on the history of direct democracy than I do.
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Canada is a parliamentary democracy with democratically elected Members of Parliament (MP) voting on legislation. MPs vote on party lines. Ok, on the odd occasion they do not. But when they stray it is because the vote does not matter, or they want to defect to another party. What if the voters in the riding do not want what the party does? Is this enough democracy for Canadian?
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An app allowing constituents to vote directly on legislature before parliament with the MP casting their ballot for the majority from their riding is the idea behind the novel Owls, Doughnuts, and Democracy. Direct democracy administrated by an app destroys one of its biggest criticisms, that it is unwieldly to administer.
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The next greatest criticism of direct democracy is that unqualified people should not vote on topics they do not understand. The current leaders of Canada’s major parties have the stunning qualifications of a landlord whose only had a government job and a trust fund drama teacher. The only qualification needed to be an MP is to be Canadian and 18. Canada has the highest level of secondary education in the world, yet we are happy to have a politically vetted MP with no other qualification vote in parliament for us. Who’s the dummy?
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Direct democracy is the antidote to the wedge issue. Wedge issues are those issues that turn some voters rabid by attacking their identity while turning the others off - stuff like abortion, immigration, trans rights, and whatever boils the blood. Direct democracy separates the issues so one can vote with the party they identify with on most issues but against the wedge issue.
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As the author of ODD, I do not believe direct democracy is a panacea to democracy’s problems. Direct Democracy could be a way to get more democracy and perhaps help proportional representation become part of Canadian democracy – an issue dropped the day after every election. ODD discusses direct democracy, populism, social media and all the other topics relevant in Canadian politics with levity and spunk. Hopefully, ODD gets you thinking about politics because when people do not, we lose our voice.
Above is the statue of Athena in front of the Austrian Parliament. Athena has become the Goddess of Democracy. The owl also represents Athena, coincidence?