a little reform

i mentioned a while ago that having read two books on democracy, one on democracy in classical greece, the other on the US constitutional convention. both inspired me to think about fixing up our democracy, and i'm still thinking about it.

for the moment, i have four major areas i'm thinking about: redistricting, referenda, recalls, and restricting money in politics. there's a bunch of other issues i wouldn't mind talking about, like ranked-choice voting/instant-runoff voting, but they don't seem as important to me now.

i'm curious what my dear readers think of my various proposals, since i'd like to refine them enough to make them some sort of agenda or manifesto. ideally, they'd become concrete enough to get political candidates to support them as a plank in their platform.

i figure changing legislative redistricting is sufficiently accepted i might as well just say what's on my mind. i prefer a belt and suspenders approach: independent redistricting committees, with your choice of algorithms to keep them honest.

algorithms by themselves have two flaws. one, they only tell you that something's gone wrong, not how to make it right. given that legislatures have vested interests in redistricting, it would fall to the courts (again) to try to fix their wrong answers. i don't see this as an improvement.

two, any algorithm can be gamed. tell people what the rules are, and they'll find a way of exploiting them to their advantage to the extent possible. so at best, any algorithmic solution reduces the problem of vested interests, not eliminates it. this seems, frankly, inadequate.

so, what say you?