This articlefrom Public Interest from public interest got me thinking.

The last so called consensus issue from the Florence meeting was that “and that one vote every four years given to political parties run by self-serving elites is no way to run modern, complex democracies in a globalised economy"

Now I could agree with that and here’s why.

Democracy must be about choice and freedom and that is increasing disappearing recently. I’ll supply a few examples.

My sister serves on the Parish council where she lives. They are supposedly responsible for the local parish property, playgrounds, village hall etc. However, the budget they have is virtually always pre determined by insurance costs and the necessary audit every year. In fact, the audit fee is the single largest item on the budget. It remains that as there is no discretion over the budget or duties, the fact that the members of the council are democratically elected means nothing.

If they choose, they can fund raise (and many councils do), or apply for grants, say from the lottery money for specific projects. This, however, doesn’t need a council.

Another example.

The RAF, some years ago decided to give station commanders more control over how their bases were run. Control of the budget was given to the station commander.

Again, the budget was entirely pre determined by costs over which the station commander had no control such as fuel, wages and mission. The only real choice he or she had was over who cut the grass on the airfield. Where my brother was deputy commander, a flock of sheep was found to be cost effective thus allowing a nine hole golf course to be constructed.

Similarly, democracy suffers by being run on rails rather than a road. There is an every decreasing amount of autonomy in local affairs as central governments take more and more power. I am speaking primarily for Europe rather than the USA as I understand that the States there still retain sovereign power. How much freedom they have to exercise that is another matter of course.

This is the main reason for the drop of in voter participation. People feel, rightly or wrongly that their vote is worthless.

What to do about it is another matter of course. Direct voter control over issues seems one way but is fraught with danger.