Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!wivax!decvax!ittvax!swatt From: swatt@ittvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: two points to ponder Message-ID: <797@ittvax.UUCP> Date: Sun, 19-Jun-83 22:23:39 EDT Article-I.D.: ittvax.797 Posted: Sun Jun 19 22:23:39 1983 Date-Received: Mon, 20-Jun-83 01:47:43 EDT References: ihnss.1563 Lines: 25 Regarding selection of legislators at random: Athens had something like that, but the citizen population (non-female, non-slave, Athenean-born) was small enough that "at random" practically required a citizen to fill some office at least once in his life. I once read a sci-fi book which postulated a society with a tri-cameral legislature. One house was composed of lawmakers and passed laws in a fairly traditional manner. Another house had the sole function of repealing laws whenever the total number of enacted laws exceeded some fixed maximum. The final house was called the "house of dunces", and consisted only of those people who could prove they had no particular expertise in law or government. Their sole function was to rule on the "comprehensibility" of the laws passed by the first house. If they couldn't figure out what the law meant, it got vetoed. If the first house wanted to pass a new law and the number of existing laws was at the limit, they had to convince the second house to repeal a law or two. Not only did you have to get support for your new law, but you had to get agreement on which old law got removed. Sort of a "balanced budget" approach to statutes. Sounded like a pretty interesting system to me. - Alan S. Watt