Reforming Political Modalities

Political modalities tend to be highly inefficient. Issues that are raised one day are sometimes forgotten the next.

I would suggest that the future progress of politics requires the rationalization of decision-making.

Currently, representatives of the people deal with issues of the day in a relatively haphazard way, depending solely on pressures effected upon them by others.

With the advent of the Internet, there is no reason why our representatives should not be required to make their decision-making not only transparent, but subject to continuous and real-time public review. Thus, if a particular legislator argues against the bill, it would be known exactly why. They would have to present some evidence for their arguments which would then be made available on the Internet for general comment and feedback.

To filter out nonsensical comments, public comment would be restricted to those who are already pre-registered, and violations of rules of decorum would result in negative consequences. For example, suppose that a bill is pending on immigration. Rather than depending solely on the various readings of the bill and debate on the floor, the appropriate legislative body should be required to post not only the bill, but specific arguments for and against it on a real-time basis for public review and comment as the bill is being considered. The Internet would be utilized for this purpose.

Bills should be prioritized and tracked on a real-time basis and requests for amendments should be thoroughly explained. Each legislator should be required to submit summaries of proposed bills for immediate public review and decisions on such bills by individual legislators should be explained in writing and posted within a reasonable time in accordance with set standards. To some extent, public viewing of the processes of government already exists. We can turn on C-SPAN and watch Congress at work. We can review the texts of various bills. But such efforts are rudimentary compared with what is possible.

Politics is too inefficient as it is, and we must try to reform the processes involve to rid the system of unnecessary impediments to the rational consideration of legislative proposals.