Glen Neely is known for his revolutionary ideas on updating and extending the EW tenet on markets and mass psychology. I had earlier tried to summarise my understanding of his extensions here.
Recently, I was quite excited to see this interview from neowave site (here) that pointed out a simple and elegant solution to the problems of governance that large democracies face albeit in the context of USA.
While looking at governance deficit (here) I did think that small, manageable populations help rich states to turn welfare states. The contra argument, i.e., a large population increases the distance between the governed and the governors is what Neely brilliantly exposes as the ailment particularly since the representation has remained practically unchanged over last so many years.
Cut to the chase, what was our population in 1950 and now. And how many MPs were there then and now. Can we have a Lok Sabha with 2000 members? And a Rajya Sabha with 1000? Or may be more? Logistics may be an issue (in this electronic age?), but is there intrinsic merit in this proposal?
I think yes. For the simple reason, elected representatives today do not seem to represent people. I don't think that most of them think that they are either public "servants" or "representatives". May be the main reason is that they are FAR from people, literally and that's what gives them Power. And power corrupts.. If so; how will they pass legislation to dilute their own power? Will it become another Lok Pal bill? Probably this requires a grass root level revolution. Food for thought for activists like Anna or IAC. If done, this would be a small step in the beginning of decentralization of power. And one that would encourage more educated and service-oriented persons to join politics and govt.
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