Sweet, facile aliteration; how often have you saved my ass when trying to come up with a subject line?
Now that I've got that out of the way, onto the content. I started this blog after some conversations with Asheesh that centered around my idea for a three-day course on voting to be taught to high school students. By three days I actually mean three forty-five minute periods, so don't think that I'm trying to come up with an intensive short course. Rather, I want to touch upon a few aspects of the democratic process which courses like AP Government either breeze over or ignore completely. I also wanted to address these things in a more analytic fashion than that used elsewhere.
Below, I'm going to write out my course introduction. A rough syllabus will be included below that. I'd like to open my work here to review and suggestions from the community. Feel free to diss on the entire concept, if you like. Feedback is Feedback, after all.
The Mechanics of Democracy
We hear the word democracy very often today, and in an increasing number of contexts. Most of us have an intuitive idea of what a democracy is; we have examples of it that we can point to. The concept and the ideal of democracy are equally familiar, and arguably even more important. We speak of democracy being spread, built, curtailed, repressed, betrayed, exalted, succeeding, and failing.
Nonetheless, there are open questions at the heart of democracy, both in its ideal form and actual implementations. In a government of the people, how does a heterogeneous collective come to a decision? How do you integrate the opinions of so many into the decision making process?
The existence of democracy is contingent on our ability to do this. The form and efficacy of democracy will be very much determined by the methods used to achieve this. While the surest safeguard of democracy is vigilance, some systems require less vigilance or tend to stimulate more; conversely, some systemic problems cannot be rectified by vigilance in any amount.
The purpose of this course will be to study the formal mechanisms by which democracies ascertain and act on the will of the people. It will be broken down into three parts corresponding to the days during which it will be taught.
Day 1: The Shapes of Democracy
This day will compare voting methods and electoral bodies from a selection of current and historical democracies. Differences between parliamentary, presidential, and hybrid forms will be explored. Careful note will be made of how issues such as voter authentication, candidate selection, the creation of polling places, the choice of voting systems, and tallying devices are addressed. In addition, comparison will be drawn with semi-democratic and authoritarian states that have elections, and the precise nature of those elections will be explored.
Day 2: From Many, One: Voting Systems
A focus on voting systems will define this day. Student will be introduced to systems such as Instant Runoff Voting, Single Transferable Votes, Condorcet methods (e.g. Ranked Pairs and Cloneproof Schwartz Sequential Dropping), Borda Counts, and Approval Voting. These systems will be contrasted with each other and more familiar voting methods. Arrow's Impossibility Theorem will be introduced, and voting systems will be examined based on their standing relative to Arrow's criteria. Finally, specific examples such as past elections, the fictional election of a capital for the state of Tenessee, the results of Australian parliamentary elections, and the Free State Project's choice of home state will be used to show how real world cases are affected by the choice of voting system.
Day 3: The Problem of Polling: Accuracy and Security in Elections
This day will explore the physical challenges of elections. Specific attention will be paid to voter interfaces and their ability to produce accurately countable records. Security will also be a core topic addressed during this day. Historical cases of voter fraud will be examined. The Florida recount will be addressed, as well as the Diebold voting machine controversy. This day will end with an overview of the course as a whole and an arguement that public discourse on these issues is not only useful but critical for the health of democracy.
I'm about to eat dinner, and I plan to try and see the Star Wars premiere tonight. I'll get back with specific syllabi for each of the days. Until then, Praem is out.