From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1997 22:06:15 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Govt & cyberspace
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970206215534.234F-100000@well.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I find your "distributed democracy" interesting, except that it would
allow scant time for deliberation.

Think of it this way: don't you think the majority of Americans would have
voted to pass the CDA? Or worse? Or restrictions on domestic crypto? Or
worse? 

Democracy generally means majoritarian rule. The Bill of Rights is an
anti-majoritarian document. It protects the rights of political or
religious minorities. I fear that electronic "click here to vote"
democracy would undermine the Bill of Rights even more.

-Declan

---

Dale Thorn writes:

I wish for once and for all someone would delineate this "democracy"
thing from a true, distributed democracy, where every individual is
required to participate equally, and no narrow interests can co-opt
the vote the way they do in the kind of "democracy" Declan mentions.

Wouldn't it be better when people mention a one-word political
philosophy such as democracy, that they make the definition
more precise by using two or three words instead?