Delegatory Representation

When our Founding Fathers created our government, they chose a republic because it offered a solution to multiple problems:

1. Acumen: It allowed citizens to entrust decisions with others who were more educated on the issues.
2. Federal Representation: It overcame the logistical problem of informing remote districts.
3. Constituent Representation: It overcame the logistical problem of remote districts informing the central government.
4. Federation Concerns: It's bicameral structure satisfied those who wanted proportional votes (with the House) and those who did not (with the Senate.)

The question is, given where we are today from the standpoints of technology, ethics, economy, stability and security, is the Republic still the best answer to all of the issues raised above? Lets take them on a case by case basis:

1. Acumen: The more time one spends studying something, the more informed they are. It is overwhelmingly probable that members of the Congress know more about the issues (bills and resolutions) than the average citizen.
2. Federal Representation: With the advent of instant communication, access to television and internet, we no longer have this problem. it is no longer the representative's job to keep her constituents informed.
3. Constituent Representation: It is certainly still true today that a representative's job is to promote her constituents wishes.
4. Federation Concerns: There are still those who desire both forms of Congress, though desire alone does not suffice. Historically, while Madison was very much for proportional representation, the smaller nations (such as Rhode Island) were being asked to give up their sovereignty, and it is understood that the Senate was required to assuage the smaller states concerns that they would be bullied by states with large populations. We will revisit this issue shortly.

To summarize, points 1 and 3 are certainly still relevant, point 2 is not, and point 4 seems to be up for debate. Lets first take a closer look at points 1 and 3, since they seem to most strongly encourage the relevance of our current system. Firstly, we have Acumen. As stated above, it is true that members of Congress will know more than the average citizen. But what of those citizens that actually study enough on their own, and wish to make their own decisions. What if their representative falls in line with the citizen's views in some ways, but not in others. For example what of financial conservatives with liberal civil rights views? And conversely what of financial liberals with conservative civil-rights views? We are capable of tremendous diversity. So what can we do? On one side we need a way to express our views as individuals (the extreme scenario being a pure democracy with no representation). On the other side we have citizens who are happy with our system and want to delegate responsibility to others, except for the occasional vote for the representative. Can we one-up our current form of republic and satisfy both sides? Yes we can. We can do it with something we might call a Delegatory Republic. Here is what comprises a Delegatory Republic:

1. Each citizen has one vote, and citizens vote directly on all legislature.
2. A citizen can delegate their vote to any other citizen.
3. When a citizen comes of voting age, their default delegations are to their representatives.
4. Both voting and delegation can be done securely online, and at voting stations, which might take the shape of kiosks in federal buildings (like the Post Office).
5. Citizens may change their delegates at any time, with no restrictions on frequency or choice.
6. A citizen can associate different representatives with different keywords. So a citizen might delegate all bills regarding women's rights to their mother, while delegating all issues surrounding agriculture to their uncle (who is of course a farmer), while finally leaving all other keywords resting with their representative. In this way, we establish default behavior that a citizen may set up (and alter) at any time with the effect that once set up, the citizen may leave their preferences alone for years knowing that each type of issue is being handled by the exact person they want.
7. By extension of point B, citizen 1 may delegate their vote (on agriculture) to citizen 2, who might in turn delegate their vote (on agriculture) to citizen 3, so that agriculture votes by citizen 1 will end up being delegated to citizen 3.
8. If you accept the responsibility of representing another citizen, then all votes you make as a representative will be made public.

Would such a system work? Would it work better than the current system? Would such a system be feasible? Lets take a look:

Would such a system work? A Delegatory Republic weaves itself seamlessly into our current structure, in that if a citizen decides to ignore it completely, their vote would by default rest with their representative, which is how our system works today.

Would it work better than the current system? Given the way a Delegatory Republic could behave just like ours, we need only look for benefits resting outside the capability of our current structure. We find them immediately. Consider a bill proposing stricter gun control. Economic liberal who are conservative with civil rights would be unhappy if their representative followed the party line and voted against the bill. The diversity of our nation is endless, with factions within factions within factions, and a Delegatory Republic would embrace this diversity.

Would Delegatory Representation be feasible. Certainly. While we are not quite in the era of electronic voting, we are getting closer every year, and even if we stick with our current form of government, the opportunity-cost of electronic voting will force us to purse the technology.

Finally, lets take a look again at the issues the Republic solved, in particular point 4: Federation Concerns. The Senate was required to satisfy the needs of the smaller states who did not want to be overshadowed by the large states in a strictly proportional vote. At the time, this concession was necessary, as we were trying to convince small states to give up their rights as a sovereign nation. But what exactly does this accomplish today? Small states get a disproportionate vote in Senate. Can we find even a single justification for this? I can not. Note however that in truth this is somewhat of an unrelated issue: Delegatory Representation would work just fine with our bicameral Congress.

There are obstacles to overcome with the implementation of a Delegatory Republic, though they are largely technological, which is the best kind of obstacle, because between technological evolution, human evolution and social evolution, technology is by far the fastest.