Demarchy - Modern Electioneering and Theoretical Modern Application

Modern Electioneering and Theoretical Modern Application

Most modern democracies are made up of republics or parliaments. In both cases, citizens participate in the direct election of individuals to represent them. While ideally most citizens would spend the time to adequately study party platforms, history and de-construct their campaigns to see if what they say represents what they will do and if it represents the important elements of their agendas, many citizens do not invest the time nor have the inclination to do so (see rational ignorance). As a result, much time and money is devoted to political canvassing and advertising — where politicians promote themselves in much the same way as a commercial product.

The result of this is that people vote according to their impressions of the politician and party based upon political advertising, plus any other form of media that has influenced them. The problem with this is that people may not necessarily vote for the best candidate since they have not taken the time to examine whom to vote for. Demarchy eliminates an election process, saving time and money involved in self-promotion. In theory power would be given to a person who has not attempted to promote themselves in this manner and hopefully apply their experience, reason, ideals to represent citizens in the forming policy more fairly than in democracy. As a theory, it has not been proven as it has yet to be acted out at any level, fully, openly, and democratically in known history.

In contemporary society, burgeoning movements are taking shape with the aim of bringing demarchy to modern governments. In the UK, these include Newid and Demarchy in the UK.