Comment on Push to lower Australia's compulsory voting age to 16 as advocate says youngsters feeling 'disenfranchised'

UnfortunateDoorHinge@aussie.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  So long as we have elected “representatives” we are not a democracy in the true sense of the word

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  • Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Direct democracy is the only real democracy.

    “But but you’ll get tyranny of the majority, which clearly doesn’t happen when the majority elect a tyrannical representative”

    What we will get is not having to pick a pollie who only aligns with 2 out of 2000 of our views.

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    • Zagorath@aussie.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I have to say, the more I think about it, the more I genuinely think Thor Prohaska—a recurring independent candidate for Dickson (Peter Dutton’s seat) and Kurwongbah (the state seat around the same area)—might have the right idea. He has an extremely detailed explanation for how it would work, but the short of his plan is that your MP would vote on any particular issue precisely how a majority of residents vote on the issue. But local residents could nominate some other local resident to be their proxy either overall, or for specific issues, alleviating the need for every voter to keep up-to-date and educated on every single issue, if there’s someone else they trust who can do that for them—while still being able to pull away that trust at literally any moment, or to simply vote directly for an issue that they are particularly passionate about, or if there’s one issue where they disagree with their chosen proxy.

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      • Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Or we could cut out the middle man and just vote or not vote ourselves on issues as we see fit?

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    • Famko@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      While I agree that direct democracy is the only real democracy, history has shown that direct democracy can only really be achieved in small communities, otherwise you run into various problems.

      Referendums are notable examples of a direct democracy in action, however they can only really work with simple yes or no questions as more complex questions usually don’t work (as voter turn out becomes abysmal).

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  • zero_gravitas@aussie.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The people of England regards itself as free; but it is grossly mistaken; it is free only during the election of members of parliament. As soon as they are elected, slavery overtakes it, and it is nothing.

    - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762)

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  • prex@aussie.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    There is always these guys.

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    • BangCrash@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Lol. They’ve been dead for a while now

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  • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Representative democracy is a form of democracy. Direct democracy is another form. There’s no “true” form.

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    • unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      In theory yes, in practice no. There is clearly a class difference between politicians and those whom they “represent”.

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      • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I mean it’s possible to have more representative representatives. It’s not an inherent thing in representative democracy that the representatives are wealthier.

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• dyc3@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  16 years olds are pretty impressionable. I know I was. Wouldn’t this kind of change make them more vulnerable to election manipulation?

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• downpunxx@fedia.io ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  lol, have you ever asked a 16 year old how they're feeling? then waited 30 minutes and asked them again?

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