A new social compact?

[lpetrich]

We seek reforms to policing. But something even deeper needs repair. - The Washington Post

When the Trump administration cleared a crowd of peaceful protesters, many of us felt we came right up to the brink. But to the brink of what exactly? I believe we stood at the edge of a fundamental rupture in our social contract: the agreement we citizens make to invest elected officials with power in order that they can do the job of securing our rights. We came face to face with a breach of the fundamental deal securing our political order.

We seek reforms to policing. Congress is taking action. But something even deeper, more foundational needs repair. We need a new social compact.

Then getting into the contents of this: Our Common Purpose | American Academy of Arts and Sciences The WaPo summarized its contents as follows:

• Expand the House of Representatives (and therefore the electoral college) by at least 50 members.
• Adopt ranked-choice voting and multi-member districts on many levels of our political system.
• Institute universal voting and instant voter registration for all eligible Americans.
• Establish an expectation of national service by all Americans.
• Limit Supreme Court justices to 18-year terms.
• Build civic media to counteract the challenges introduced by social media.
• Find ways to tell our nation’s story that are honest about the past without falling into cynicism and appreciative of the county’s accomplishments without spinning into deification.
• Increase resources and resolve for community leadership, civic education and an American culture of shared commitment to constitutional democracy and one another.

 

[lpetrich]

I will now discuss the contents of that report.

Strategy 1: Achieve Equality of Voice and Representation

1.1 Substantially enlarge the House of Representatives through federal legislation to make it and the Electoral College more representative of the nation’s population.

There is some justification for doing so:

• election - Is there an optimal size of a parliament? - Politics Stack Exchange
• Formula for the number of Members of Parliament? —
• [1305.5476] Universal size effects for populations in group-outcome decision-making problems
• The optimal number of representatives for democracy | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal

I gather from that that the ideal size of a legislature is about (population)^(1/3). Applying that to the US gives an ideal size of 700, and subtracting out 100 Senators gives 600 Reps.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

You should call it "amend the constitution" but anyway...

Yes, expand the size of the House. The only constitutional impediment is no more than 1 rep per 30,000 people. Currently the average is 700,000 people. We could increase the size of the House by ten-fold without bumping up against the constitutional limitation. I would make it harder to buy legislation while making legislators more accountable to those they represent.

 

[lpetrich]

1.2 Introduce ranked-choice voting in presidential, congressional, and state elections.

Also local elections.

I like it. Ranked-choice or preference voting is ranking the candidates in the order of one's preference. If one's top preference doesn't win, then one's next preference is a vote that will still count to its candidate. The usual way of counting for a single seat is instant runoff or sequential runoff. If a candidate gets a majority of top-preference votes, that candidate wins. Otherwise, drop the candidate that is lowest in top-preference votes and count again. Repeat until some candidate gets a majority.

This method is essentially spoiler-proof and it makes separate runoff elections unnecessary. It may also be good at making primaries unnecessary.

A ballot need not have a preference line for every candidate -- having only top three or five seems to work well.

Instant runoff counting may be extended to multiple seats, in the form of single transferable vote. One drops winners as well as losers until all the seats are filled.


1.3 Amend or repeal and replace the 1967 law that mandates single-member districts for the House, so that states have the option to use multi-member districts on the condition that they adopt a non-winner-take-all election model.

Something like STV or the cumulative vote. A common form of the latter is dot voting, where one has several votes that one can distribute however one likes. Non-WTA enables representation of racial and ethnic minorities, and also ideological minorities. Republicans can get a voice in heavily Democratic areas, and vice versa. All without needing awkwardly-drawn districts.


1.4 Support adoption, through state legislation, of independent citizen-redistricting commissions in all fifty states. Complete nationwide adoption, through federal legislation, that requires fair congressional districts to be determined by state-established independent citizen-redistricting commissions; allows these commissions to meet criteria with non-winner-take-all models; and provides federal funding for these state processes, with the goal of establishing national consistency in procedures.

That is so politicians do not get to choose their voters.

 

[lpetrich]

1.5 Amend the Constitution to authorize the regulation of election contributions and spending to eliminate undue influence of money in our political system, and to protect the rights of all Americans to free speech, political participation, and meaningful representation in government.

1.6 Pass strong campaign-finance disclosure laws in all fifty states that require full transparency for campaign donations, including from 501(c)(4) organizations and LLCs.

1.7 Pass “clean election laws” for federal, state, and local elections through mechanisms such as public matching donation systems and democracy vouchers, which amplify the power of small donors.

All to keep deep-pocketed interests from buying elections.


1.8 Establish, through federal legislation, eighteen-year terms for Supreme Court justices with appointments staggered such that one nomination comes up during each term of Congress. At the end of their term, justices will transition to an appeals court or, if they choose, to senior status for the remainder of their life tenure, which would allow them to determine how much time they spend hearing cases on an appeals court.

I'm not sure if I want that, but I like that bit of keeping ex-Supremes as senior judges.

 

[lpetrich]

Strategy 2: Empower Voters

2.1 Give people more choices about where and when they vote, with state-level legislation in all states that supports the implementation of vote centers and early voting. During an emergency like COVID-19, officials must be prepared to act swiftly and adopt extraordinary measures to preserve ballot access and protect the fundamental right to vote.

Also voting by mail. I like that. Voting should not be needlessly difficult.


2.2 Change federal election day to Veterans Day to honor the service of veterans and the sacrifices they have made in defense of our constitutional democracy, and to ensure that voting can occur on a day that many people have off from work. Align state election calendars with this new federal election day.

A convenient way of making Election Day a national holiday.


2.3 Establish, through state and federal legislation, same-day registration and universal automatic voter registration, with sufficient funding and training to ensure that all government agencies that have contact with citizens include such registration as part of their processes.

I agree on universal automatic voter registration - every citizen of voting age should automatically be registered to vote. As to voter ID, the only ID that I would support would be some general national ID that would be universal.


2.4 Establish, through state legislation, the preregistration of sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds and provide educational opportunities for them to practice voting as part of the preregistration process.

2.5 Establish, through congressional legislation, that voting in federal elections be a requirement of citizenship, just as jury service is in the states. All eligible voters would have to participate, in person or by mail, or submit a valid reason for nonparticipation. Eligible voters who do not do so would receive a citation and small fine. (Participation could, of course, include voting for “none of the above.”)

Seems rather excessive.


2.6 Establish, through state legislatures and/or offices of secretaries of state, paid voter orientation for voters participating in their first federal election, analogous to a combination of jury orientation and jury pay. Most states use short videos produced by the state judicial system to provide jurors with a nonpolitical orientation to their duty; first-time voters should receive a similar orientation to their duty.

Voting is simpler than jury duty, so that may be overdoing it. But I do think that a little bit of instruction may be necessary for some people.


2.7 Restore federal and state voting rights to citizens with felony convictions immediately and automatically upon their release from prison, and ensure that those rights are also restored to those already living in the community.

I agree.

 

[lpetrich]

Strategy 3: Ensure the Responsiveness of Political Institutionss

3.1 Adopt formats, processes, and technologies that are designed to encourage widespread participation by residents in official public hearings and meetings at local and state levels.

3.2 Design structured and engaging mechanisms for every member of Congress to interact directly and regularly with a random sample of their constituents in an informed and substantive conversation about policy areas under consideration.

3.3 Promote experimentation with citizens’ assemblies to enable the public to interact directly with Congress as an institution on issues of Congress’s choosing.

3.4 Expand the breadth of participatory opportunities at municipal and state levels for citizens to shape decision-making, budgeting, and other policy-making processes.


A big barrier is that a lot of people have to be at work. That keeps many people from participating. I didn't see much of an attempt to address that issue.

 

[lpetrich]

Strategy 4: Dramatically Expand Civic Bridging Capacity

4.1 Establish a National Trust for Civic Infrastructure to scale up social, civic, and democratic infrastructure. Fund the Trust with a major nationwide investment campaign that bridges private enterprise and philanthropic seed funding. This might later be sustained through annual appropriations from Congress on the model of the National Endowment for Democracy.

"Civic infrastructure serves a similar bridging function: think of all that parks, libraries, schools, churches, and museums do to bring people together in their communities." - not sure what "civic infrastructure" is supposed to be in general.

Something not addressed is ensuring that everybody will have enough leisure to participate, so that they won't have to spend most of their time at work to survive.


4.2 Activate a range of funders to invest in the leadership capacity of the so-called civic one million: the catalytic leaders who drive civic renewal in communities around the country. Use this funding to encourage these leaders to support innovations in bridge-building and participatory democracy.

 

[lpetrich]

Strategy 5: Build Civic Information Architecture that Supports Common Purpose

5.1 Form a high-level working group to articulate and measure social media’s civic obligations and incorporate those defined metrics in the Democratic Engagement Project, described in Recommendation 5.5.

5.2 Through state and/or federal legislation, subsidize innovation to reinvent the public functions that social media have displaced: for instance, with a tax on digital advertising that could be deployed in a public media fund that would support experimental approaches to public social media platforms as well as local and regional investigative journalism.

5.3 To supplement experiments with public media platforms (Recommendation 5.2), establish a public-interest mandate for for-profit social media platforms. Analogous to zoning requirements, this mandate would require such for-profit digital platform companies to support the development of designated public-friendly digital spaces on their own platforms.

5.4 Through federal legislation and regulation, require of digital platform companies: interoperability (like railroad-track gauges), data portability, and data openness sufficient to equip researchers to measure and evaluate democratic engagement in digital contexts.

5.5 Establish and fund the Democratic Engagement Project: a new data source and clearinghouse for research that supports social and civic infrastructure. The Project would conduct a focused, large-scale, systematic, and longitudinal study of individual and organizational democratic engagement, including the full integration of measurement and the evaluation of democratic engagement in digital contexts.

I don't know how much of that is worth doing.

 

[lpetrich]

Strategy 6: Inspire a Culture of Commitment to American Constitutional Democracy and One Another

6.1 Establish a universal expectation of a year of national service and dramatically expand funding for service programs or fellowships that would offer young people paid service opportunities. Such opportunities should be made available not only in AmeriCorps or the military but also in local programs offered by municipal governments, local news outlets, and nonprofit organizations.

Rather short on details of what this might be, but it does say that such service must be paid, and that one should not need to leave one's community to do one's service. That's good.


6.2 To coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, create a Telling Our Nation’s Story initiative to engage communities throughout the country in direct, open-ended, and inclusive conversations about the complex and always evolving American story. Led by civil society organizations, these conversations will allow participants at all points along the political spectrum to explore both their feelings about and hopes for this country.

To seek some balance between super good and super bad.


6.3 Launch a philanthropic initiative to support the growing civil society ecosystem of civic gatherings, ceremonies, and rituals focused on ethical, moral, and spiritual dimensions of our civic values.

6.4 Increase public and private funding for media campaigns and grassroots narratives about how to revitalize democracy and encourage commitment to our constitutional democracy and one another.

6.5 Invest in civic educators and civic education for all ages and in all communities through curricula, ongoing program evaluations, professional development for teachers, and a federal award program that recognizes civic-learning achievements. These measures should encompass lifelong (K–12 and adult) civic-learning experiences with the full community in mind.

From its description, it seems to include mock parliaments -  Model parliament - where people practice acting like some council or legislature.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

It might be easier to end winner take all in the electoral college.

We need a full scale assault on extreme gerrymandering, voter caging, voter suppression and voter discouragement.

We must have a full scale project to make voting systems sager, harder to hack, and so systems are robust and capable of accommodating people without 6 hour waits to vote.

Voting my mail needs to be available to any who want it. attempts to make that harder such as we are now seeing in Texas need to be illegal.

 

[lpetrich]

It might be easier to end winner take all in the electoral college.

Make the EC proportional to votes?

Each party getting a number of electors proportional to its candidate's vote?

We need a full scale assault on extreme gerrymandering, voter caging, voter suppression and voter discouragement.

We must have a full scale project to make voting systems sager, harder to hack, and so systems are robust and capable of accommodating people without 6 hour waits to vote.

Voting my mail needs to be available to any who want it. attempts to make that harder such as we are now seeing in Texas need to be illegal.

I agree with all of that.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Only two states to my knowledge have proportional electoral college voting. Maine and Nebraska. Adopting proportional voting would go a long way towards making sure a candidate that gains millions more popular votes does not lose by 77K votes. And would help end controversial elections like Bush in 2000 in Florida.

 

[lpetrich]

Only two states to my knowledge have proportional electoral college voting. Maine and Nebraska. Adopting proportional voting would go a long way towards making sure a candidate that gains millions more popular votes does not lose by 77K votes. And would help end controversial elections like Bush in 2000 in Florida.

That's a sort of half-proportional voting. It allocates one elector per Congressional district and two electors for the whole state, instead of all the electors for the whole state.