Reform Senate by using Random Selection
The Senate expenses scandal has taken Canadians by storm. Senators who are unelected and often hyper-partisan have been caught flagrantly snuffling their snouts in the public trough. Here's a refreshing thought -- a Tribunate-style Senate composed of randomly-selected citizens!! This would ensure that real Canadians from a variety of backgrounds and incomes join together to truly reform the house of sober second thought.
Here's a description of a similar proposal for the USA from a recent article by Stuart White:
...[John] McCormick proposes that the US revive and update a key
institution of the Roman republic: the Tribunate. In a fundamental
reform of the US constitution, a relatively small group of citizens
(McCormick suggests 51 people) is to be chosen at random each year to
sit on the Tribunate. They will have power to call on outside expertise
of their own choosing, to assist in their deliberations. This assembly
will have complete control of its own agenda. It will not merely issue
recommendations, but have some degree of independent political
authority. Specifically, it will have the power to put at least one
proposal per year to a popular referendum. It will also have the power
to veto one law made by Congress, one executive order of the President,
and one decision of the Supreme Court per year; and the power to
initiate impeachment proceedings against officeholders in any branch of
government. Finally, in order to make it an institution that represents
the people in contrast to the ‘nobles’, eligibility for the Tribunate
will be limited to those in the bottom 90 per cent of the wealth
distribution (and, within this 90 per cent, to those who have no
significant record of holding political office). In McCormick’s view, a
Tribunate of this kind can help ensure that popular preferences are
better represented in the political process. Its mere existence, on
these terms, will also promote a certain kind of class consciousness, he
argues: an awareness that society is divided into a people and an
elite, whose interests are not necessarily coincident.
Personally, I would remove the caveat that eligibility for the Tribunate (Senate) be limited to the bottom 90% of wealth distribution. There's no need... random selection (and a truly effective collaborative process such as dynamic facilitation) would ensure outcomes that are fair and effective.
See the entire article by Stuart White, titled 'Taking Democracy Seriously Demands that we identify and address the danger of oligarchy.'
