Horus wrote: ↑22 Feb 2022, 16:09
Defendthetruth,
I know you are arguing for a parliamentary system of representation, but you should also recognize the defective nature of that system relative to the presidential democracy in which case the leader is elected by each voting age citizen of the nation. Consider the type of power each person deposits in the person of the delegate or representative. It is exactly like the power of attorney one assigns to another person on his behalf. When each congressional delegate was elected by a person in kllil x, how much of the decision making power of the voter is deposited in the delegate? That is never clear! What happens when the delegate makes decisions above and beyond the intentions of the voter? These are serious philosophical and legal defects of indirect representation and abuse of representative democracy. Yes, every Amara voter did not elected and delegate Christina. It is also true, that the Gurage voter did not vote for Abiy to be the PM, nor did that voter instruct Erestu to vote for Abiy in the parliament. As you can see, in the defective parliamentary system, the local limited delegate of the voter becomes a power and a sovereign unto himself fully substituting the full person and power of the absent voter. A voter give away only a very small fraction of his sovereignty to his representative his እንደራሴ! ያ ካልሆነ እንደ ራሴው ነጻና ሏዓላዊ የሆነውን ግለሰብ ተክቶ ግለሰቡ የማይፈልገውን
ያላሰበውን ውሳኔዎች ሁሉ በመውሰድ የግለሰቡን ስልጣን ዩዘርፕ ያደርጋል ማለት ነው እንደራሴው! ስለዚህ ትልቁ ጥያቄ አሁን ባለው የኢትዮጵያ የግለሰቦች ስልጣንና ሃይል ውክልና ስርኣት አንድ ወኪል ምን ያህል መብት ነው ግለሰቡ (ድምጽ ሰጩ) ለወኪሉ ቆርሶ የሰጠው የሚለው ደገብ የለውም! ይህ ነው እጅግ መሰረታዊ የፓርላማዊ ሲስተም ደካማነት! ስለሆነ አቢይ በክሪስቲአን ላይ ያነሳው ትችት ባቢይ የስልጣን አያያዝ ላይም ሊነሳ ይችላል። ለዚህም ነው አቢይ ራሱ የፕሪዚዳንታዊ ሲስተም ይደግፋል የሚባለው ። (በችኮላ ስለጻኩት ስህተቱን አርመው ያንብቡ)
Horus,
in the case of Ethiopia at least I can say the following: when we are having such immense problems to agree on almost anything that the few hundreds of people decide for us on behave of us (on issues of collective interest), then imagine what could happen if all the 120 million were to make that decision collectively on their own, a nightmare situation.
I think that is what the so called representative democracy is supposed to curb, but I will not indulge myself much into it, as I am not an expert of social science topics.
The issue of this thread is also not if representative democracy (indirect representation) is good or bad, it is simply about the flaw in thinking pattern of the newly elected እንደራሴ in the Ethiopian parliament.
He was delegated to be there from perhaps thousands of people at most but claimed to represent millions, which is an abuse of people's will.
A flaw in a representative democracy, perceived or real, can't justify such a flaw in the personal thinking pattern of an individual.
The issue is also even not so much about the obvious flaw in his thinking pattern, it is much more about the difference how those who are dealing with our issues differ in their handling of public trust.
I remember a scene, which I saw over a YouTube video years back, where the late PM Meles Zenawi reacted to a comment by a representative about a fiscal policy or plan. The guy didn't understand well the term, I think, but that didn't surprise me as much as how the then PM treated the representative, it was very diminutive of the person in the parliament.
PM Abiy didn't choose that path of denigrating a fellow representative, instead just indicated the flaw and moved on, perhaps a more fitting way of treating our fellow citizen or a representatives, ክቡር የምክር ቤት አባል.
On the topic of sovereignty I think individuals have still some level of sovereignty on many of the issues affecting their daily lives, they can choose what to eat, which car to drive, when and where to sleep, whom to meet on their own and many more issues of individual lives. But life is not limited to just these individual level issues, we also need to handle collective issues, about collective security, building roads, generating power, managing the overall resources of the country (collection of all) and the likes. On such issues we have to agree to decide on collectively and deciding as a collection of 120 Million is simply impractical, where the solution is to use representatives and make the decision in a more manageable number of individuals.
Whether you follow a parliamentary or presidential system, at some level you have to delegate your decision making power to someone else, else it will be messy.
In America you elected the president, but then the president will elect for you the the ministers, the commander of the army, the judges and many more, which is also a delegation, in my view at least.
But I have a question for you:
if you defend the sovereignty of individuals, then how can you ignore the sovereignty of collection of individuals?
I do agree that for the whole to be truly sovereign the parts also need to be sovereign at their respective level.
