Anyway, I’m not american (that’s why my English is so poor) and my country have (too) many political parties (about 30, I think), with many different ideological orientations. So we can say we have diversity and independence. This doesn’t stop people from voting in politicians that doesn’t represent them on the chambers or senate…
For me, unfortunately, Surowiecki’s very appealing idea is just this: a very appealing idea…
Greetings
Rui Alao

Democracy can only flourish in countries with a sound legal framework. Ironic that something which has the potential to leverage the wisdom of the crowd can only stem from rules defined by the few, e.g. the US supreme court & Constitution.

I would argue that the missing element needed to enable the wisdom of the crowd in the current democratic systems is ‘the network’. Grassroots dissemination of information should encourage the crowd to make better educated decisions. My personal opinion is that its the mainstream media which is screwing up democracy in the US.

I wonder if the incumbent Rick Santorum’s problems could be attributed to his outspoken remarks being recorded and distributed on the internet. I live in MA and normally wouldnt hear about the Senator from PA. Over the past year I’ve read about the internet driven movement to have a rather distasteful sexual act named Santorum in response to his anti homesexuality stance. I also signed a petition against his efforts to privitise the public domain NOAA weather site which I need for sailing.

Granted, the guy is an idiot and would be floundering anyway. However, the negative publicity he’s generated on the net must be a factor in his ratings slump.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5227717

There are usually many more choices than two throught primaries and the main contest. However, Americans tend to perceive only two candidates because American elections have a winner-take-all rule set that disincentivizes voting for minority parties–winning 10% of the vote does you no good. Proportional representative systems, conversely, change those incentives: 10% of the vote wins 10% of the representative power creating incentives to vote for candidates that cannot win outright.

Another element worth considering is not candidate diversity, but more importantly district diversity. Gerrymandered districts ensure that voting aggregates homogenuous opinion.

More fundamentally, let’s challenge the assumption that we elect poor politicians. Democracies enjoy the highest living standards in the world–from generally fairer civil rights to hockey-stick economic growth over the last 100 years. Around the world, other social structures (eg dictatorships) tend to, but not always (eg Singapore), produce significantly worse outcomes. Though not optimal in every case, representative democracies on average perform better than alternative forms.