Man Is Above Politics Like Fish Are Above Water

March 27, 2019 9:30 AM

“But Collier, Posner and Weyl are all reformists, whatever the self-styled “radicalism” of their ideas. They want, above all, to repair capitalism, and repairing capitalism is, whether they want to admit it or not, a political project. However deeply we might nourish fantasies of post-partisanship, to implement policies today we still need to pick sides. The ideas presented in these books are crying out for a politics — for groups with real power to adopt and champion them. But neither Collier nor Posner and Weyl, in stubbornly insisting on their superiority to both left and right, seem to care much about any of this. Nor do they command, on their own, the support of a known political constituency.“ Maybe What We Need Is ....More Politics? (Longreads)
posted by The Whelk (6 comments total)

Posner and Weyl's book argues for single-issue referenda, which the author of this article thinks produces too much of a democratic burden on people who would have to learn too much or vote too much or something, so...

Alternatively: California. Government by single-issue referendum doesn't work, we have evidence.
posted by mhoye at 10:38 AM on March 27, 2019 [6 favorites]

Even autocrats delegate. That doesn't make them less autocratic. Instead, it lets them extend their power. In the same way, it is not "less democratic" for people to elect delegates and representatives to handle complex issues on their behalf.
posted by Zalzidrax at 10:52 AM on March 27, 2019

Posner and Weyl's book argues for single-issue referenda, which the author of this article thinks produces too much of a democratic burden on people who would have to learn too much or vote too much or something, so...

It’s a fairly standard criticism of government by referendum that the population of voters is being expected to make considered judgements of decision after decision & that this imposes a significant time burden that will not be met by the majority of voters. The consequences are obvious & inevitable.

Expecting referendums to magically lead to better results than government by elected representatives is wishful thinking.
posted by pharm at 11:58 AM on March 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

my understanding of 'radical markets' is roughly:

1. land value taxes are great
2. big government is bad
2. therefore, we make everyone self-assess their land value taxes
3. to prevent cheating, if someone meets your price you are forced to sell

this makes a certain kind of intuitive sense but if you apply it to residential tenure as we've come to perceive and understand it, the amount of power it hands over to the very wealthy is kind of nuts

maybe in practice it'd work out, but thinking about it it seems like it'd instill a huge level of instability into people's lives, to wit: a billionaire could evict whole neighbourhoods in one stroke.

imagine being chased across america by jeff bezos, personally piqued by a column you wrote, being forced to find new housing constantly because he just keeps buying wherever you live out from under you.
posted by pmv at 12:06 PM on March 27, 2019 [9 favorites]

Posner and Weyl's book argues for single-issue referenda, which the author of this article thinks produces too much of a democratic burden on people who would have to learn too much or vote too much or something, so...

Single issue referenda are how we got Proposition 13 in California, TABOR in Colorado, and, oh yes, Brexit.

I think the jury's in on this - single issue referenda are bad governance.
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:23 PM on March 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

I don't think single issue referenda are great. But it's very odd to critique them as undemocratic.

They're undemocratic in the same way as caucuses are, giving power by design to the people invested in the issue.
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:39 PM on March 27, 2019