The revered founding fathers of the United States, including Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton, combined intellectual prowess with a sense of civic duty to shape the Constitution of the emerging republic.
In a stark contrast, the brightest minds of today often eschew political careers. Their potential to effect significant change is often overshadowed by the requirements of navigating exhausting party politics and focusing more on winning than crafting meaningful legislation. This is largely due to the influential role that political donations play in the modern political arena.
The checks and balances of today’s representative democracies are often stymied rather than enabled by partisan politics. This is evident in the prioritization of factional disputes over the pursuit of sound policy. This inefficiency was laid bare in the delayed and inadequate response of the US Congress to the 2008 global financial crisis and the contentious battles surrounding the Obamacare legislation, for example.
Politicians in these democracies are expected to represent their constituents, but personal ambitions often overshadow genuine advocacy. Prospective politicians can generally be grouped into three categories: defenders, advocates, and rulers. While most politicians possess elements of each, one usually dominates.
To accommodate the diverse motivations of politicians, the proposed Epistocracy distinguishes between two classes of politicians: “defenders,” who are solely tasked with representation, and “rulers,” who focus on governance.
The Chamber of Representatives and the Executive Council embody this dichotomy, serving respectively as advocates for citizen interests and as a more autocratic body striving to implement its own agenda. The Chamber’s role is to check the autocratic tendencies of the Council, holding it accountable and preventing it from diverging too greatly from citizen interests.
To ensure true representation, the election process for the Chamber of Representatives will be designed to be open, fair, and accessible, with funding strictly controlled to prevent undue influence and level the playing field.
This Epistocracy does not include a judiciary system. A basic constitution outlining the separation of powers and responsibilities among the government branches, as well as aspects such as taxation and adoption of a Bitcoin Standard, guides the system. Compliance with this constitution and the system’s integrity is overseen by the Head of the Bureaucracy.
The Executive Council, consisting of the “rulers,” holds legislative authority on a broad spectrum of issues. The Chamber of Representatives, consisting of both “defenders” and “advocates,” checks the Council’s power, and other mechanisms are in place to ensure moderation and balance.
This system allows for the nation’s brightest minds to focus on effective policymaking, free from constant pressure for approval, while still ensuring alignment with the public will.
The legislative process in this system depends heavily on consensus-building. A key figure, the Arbiter, mediates between the Chamber and the Council, and ensures the government’s smooth functioning. The Arbiter wields significant influence through their power to approve or reject petitions from the Chamber, allowing them to support or hinder the agendas of both branches.
In this Epistocracy, all politicians need charisma, effective communication, and a collaborative mindset. The system does not accommodate political parties, but temporary alliances may form. Only politicians with exceptional persuasion skills and compelling ideas can achieve dominance. This justifies the label “Epistocracy” for this system, as it enables highly competent individuals to enact necessary, albeit politically challenging, decisions.
Next: Taxation and Safeguarding Local Government in this Epistocracy
- Davenport, David (2017), A Growing Cancer On Congress: The Curse Of Party-Line Voting. [Online] Available: https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddavenport/2017/12/13/a-growing-cancer-on-congress-the-curse-of-party-line-voting/ (December 13, 2017)
- Kędzia, Zdzisław and Hauser, Agata (2011), The impact of political party control over the exercise of the parliamentary mandate. [Online] Available: http://archive.ipu.org/conf-e/129/control-study.pdf
- Koerth-Baker, Maggie (2018), How Money Affects Elections. [Online] Available: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/money-and-elections-a-complicated-love-story/ (September 10, 2018)
- Staff, The Associated Press (2019), Rep. Justin Amash quits Republican Party, says ‘frightened’ by partisan politics. [Online] Available: https://globalnews.ca/news/5461510/justin-amash-quits-republican-party/ (July 4, 2019)
- Berman, Russell, (2015), ‘Promise Kept’: The Senate Finally Votes to Repeal Obamacare.https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/the-senate-finally-votes-to-repeal-obamacare/418644/ (December 4, 2015)
- The requirement of the support of 2/3 of the Councilors to pass legislation promotes compromise between individual members within the Executive Council, thereby decreasing the likelihood of the adoption of extreme, unpopular or factious ideas/actions.