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Steve
 Austria
Improved Democracy Printer Friendly Version
The concept of democracy is a great idea, but recent trends have shown that it is a vulnerable one, too. It seems that all a leader has to do is cut the education and social security budgets and create a large mass of people that are poor and illiterate. Spend all the money you didn't spend for the sake of the people to finance a huge propaganda campaign instead, and once you have brainwashed the gullible 51% with your "new world" views, it doesn't matter at all what the other 49% say.
Here's the fix: I propose to put several other questions on the ballots as well, questions that should be fairly easy to answer for the average adult - a mathematical one, a geographical one, an economical one, and so on. The last question on the list should be the one for the President/Party/Prime Minister you want empowered, but your vote should only count if you got the previous questions correct.
With the new system, we can even do away with age restrictions. If you're 14 and educated enough to understand the world we live in, go and vote! If you're 90 and have trouble remembering your own name, chances are your vote won't count. This may sound tough, but remember that voting is an extremely important process, and you should definitely possess a sound mind on election day. So why not prove it?
See your vote as a weapon. Careless voting can kill. Protect a gun from abuse by storing it in a safe place, and protect your vote by safeguarding it with a minimum amount of education. Doing so is your own responsibility as a voter. Basically, if someone wants to manipulate you to get your vote, I'd say that's fine. But to do that, they'd first have to spend money on your education so you can pass that test. That in return makes it harder to brainwash you. If they still manage to do it, good for them - now you at least got something in return!

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Allen D Leftwich
 USA
Internet Voting Printer Friendly Version
Why have a house and senate? Suppose legislation was to be brought to the voting public instead of debated and voted on in the house and senate. With the internet being what it is today, why do we need elected representatives to vote on laws on our behalf when we now have a level of technology that can enable us to vote for ourselves? Maybe a certain day of every month could be devised to vote on, like for example the second Thursdays of every month. Legislators could make the bills to be presented to the public and special interest groups could lobby us instead of them. It would certainly be much fairer and less likely to be corruptible.
I am also against the practice of slipping unrelated legislation into bills. If internet voting on legislation ever catches on, I would like to see the line item veto also given to the people. People that don't have internet access could ask permission from a friend, relative, or neighbor to use their internet to vote or go to the public library to vote with their internet access. A person's social security number and birth date could be used to send their vote to make it valid. A set of master computers could have all registered voters information in its database for comparison to the incoming votes. Lobbyists would have to educate the public on the pros of their legislation and opposing positions would have to educate us on the cons of those bills presented. It might be time to start decentralizing the legislative body on the state and federal levels in this way.
Reward: Just get it done. 

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Deceptive Geko
 USA
Distributable Taxes Printer Friendly Version
I think that the government often spends tax money in their own interest. I have a plan called Destributable taxes which will let the tax payers at least controll how some of their money is spent.
Under my idea, the government would get full controll of 3/4ths of your taxes. The government could spend it as they see fit. The last fourth, however, would be distributed to different areas of the government by you. Your tax forms would contain a special form where you could dictate what percent of your remaining fourth goes too. So for instance if one felt that the government was not spending enough money on welfare and too much money on the military, that person could reserve most of their remaining fourth for welfare and spend little or no money on the military. Under my plan the people would then be able to keep government spending in check by chosing how their individual money is spent.
Of course like all new ideas it needs some work. THere are still a few things that would have to be worked out. Besides that though, what do you think of the basic idea?
Reward: Give me credit. 

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