A new building can be rated by a third-party agency to certify that it has been designed and built to accomplish a set of sustainability goals. This points-based rating system, called LEED and developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, has made a truly remarkable impact on the built environment. What if democratic governments could be measured by a similar third-party rating agency, using goals established to measure the effectiveness of their representative process?
Imagine a rating system that could take stock of certain metrics to determine how closely that government was meeting the goal of one person = one vote. It would establish a set of best practices – universal voter registration, holidays for certain elections, clear limits on campaign contributions to curtail undue influence, absentee voting measures to ensure access to the process for all, etc. – and then it would award points for encoding into law each of those measures. A government reaching a certain threshold of points could achieve a “model democracy” rating, call it a “Shining City on A Hill” level of democratic participation. Another democracy could achieve a “developing democracy” rating, and it could seek to improve on its status, asking those model democracies to help in their ascendency.
Imagine that system being available to those who felt disenfranchised by their democracies, so that they could have a data-based metric to back up their complaints, and even justify their revolution if necessary. Imagine that system being used to track the slide of a democracy towards an “authoritarian state,” with points falling off in real time as individual measures become subverted, one at a time, under the guise of some populist defense.
Imagine how, in the year 2020, the United States of America would measure in that system for rating democracies. Imagine if it showed we were sliding towards an “authoritarian state.” Who would we reach out to for help?
fjohnwaldo 