The Perfectly Flawed Democracy
The solution I put forth in the article below is a thought experiment. It’s also intended to be partly satirical. But whether you agree with the conclusion or not, I should note that both the data and the science I explore are real.
Imagine a third grade class in which each week ends with a cookie celebration. The students vote on which variety of cookies to eat; majority wins. Of the 20 students in the class, 11 favor chocolate chip. And so it doesn’t matter what the other nine want, because, predictably, chocolate chip wins, with slightly more than half the popular vote, every single time.
Despite being democratic, this cookie election process sure seems to ignore the demands of anyone who doesn’t fall into the majority. For one or two weeks, that might be fine. Yet over a long enough period of time, something seems off when 9 out of 20 students never get to eat their cookie of choice.
If this sounds familiar (and you live in the United States or another federal republic), it might be because representative democracies tend to work the same way.
