The individualistic system of representation:

A Proposal for Government and Campaign Finance Reform without Political Parties

January 1999

 

·       No legal role for political parties.

·       Officials elected through proposal and debate contest on TV followed by public elections, escalating regional areas from local to national.

·       Compromise in Congress reached through the following process: each Representative who wants to proposes an alternative solution for the issue at stake, e.g. the budget. A two-round vote with ballotage (choosing among the top 2-3 proposals to win the first round) then votes not whether a given alternative is approved or not, which can lead to a stalemate, but which of the alternatives is to be chosen, preferred, least bad. This may lead to alliances, but these will be temporary, pragmatic and will not have the force of law of giving any party leader a means of pressuring others into voting as a block.

·       Ministers (U.S. Secretaries) and other political positions elected through a regular open call for candidates a la academia judged by a panel of prominent people in the field involved (e.g. Science and Medicine for the NIH, Schools of Government, etc.).

·       The above fulfill the roles that political parties had in achieving political compromise, accessibility of political appointments to all, and a mechanism of filling government positions.