The rise of social media and the internet has seen enormous changes within our country. Greater accessibility to information has created a more aware public, reaching people of all ethnicities, sexualities, socio-economic groups, and more. This more informed public leads to questions about the structure of our government and thoughts about making a change.
Our Constitution created a democratic republic with the idea that not all people were qualified or had the time to make decisions about how to run our country. That is why the general population elects representatives to the Senate and House of Representatives to speak for them. However, with new technology, it is possible to start to ponder what it would take to convert this democratic republic into a pure democracy. While talking to my roommate about this prompt, she mentioned a concept that her professor had proposed to the class: tinder voting. What if there was a platform where everyone in the country could simply swipe right on policies they agreed with and swipe left on ones they didn't? It would be quick and easy and eliminate the issue of ones representatives not accurately representing their constituents' beliefs.
It's an interesting idea, but I think there are other systematic changes that have to be made as a prerequisite to instituting anything similar to that. One of the most significant issues we face in this country is the lack of knowledge voters have on the policies they're voting for. Civic education all across the country would have to be reformed, educating youth on past and current policies and the inner workings of the government. Education campaigns would have to be sustained for adults as well as policies will change. An interesting step to take with this reform of civic education would also be lowering the voting age to 16. Lowering the voting age will help students apply the knowledge they're learning in the classrooms in real life and help to establish the habit of voting early on. Lowering the voting age and establishing a pure democracy will also help to address the issue of low voter turnout in this country, as people will become engaged earlier on in a more stable phase in their life, and they will also feel like their vote matters, because it's the final decision being made.
There's a lot of work that would have to be done if a pure democracy is ever seriously considered in this country, but it's an interesting concept when thinking about the republic system of government and looking at it from a modern perspective.
I think the points that you made in this post are really excellent... I am very intrigued by the concept of tinder voting and fully agree that the voting age should be lowered to increase voter turnout. I find it most interesting how through technology and social media, our society may be moving towards a direct democracy. The very thought of having the U.S. become a pure democracy is one that contradicts the viewpoints of our founding fathers as both the Constitution and Federalist papers show leniency to having a representative democracy that will give individuals a voice without directly voting on issues. This makes me wonder if Madison and the other founding fathers would see the reason behind how 21st century developing and technological society may be better represented through a direct democracy, or if they would stand by their points for a large republic and representative democracy. I also wonder how factions would be influenced through having a direct democracy as currently, the U.S. is predominantly ruled by conservatives and liberals, would more factions evolve out of issues/individuals no longer having to fit into a party to get votes?
ReplyDelete"Tinder voting." Is that any different from choosing one's policies by consulting opinion polls?
ReplyDelete