from Hacker News

Is it possible for the open source community to collectively run for office?

by danschumann on 8/7/22, 5:58 AM with 4 comments

• by mtmail on 8/7/22, 6:08 AM

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Party in various countries is the closest I'm aware of. These days a party needs a program though and that needs to cover a wide variety of issues, relevant to the main cause or not. So suddenly the stance on family or taxation needs to be determined inside the party, it's more complex than I first imagined.

• by matt_s on 8/7/22, 2:30 PM

  It would be interesting to see someone run for office and essentially let their constituents vote on everything, the elected person essentially acting as their representative. Using technology it could be very effective. Or it could massively backfire. Maybe it would be easier to just survey people and see what they think, mostly basing legislative votes on that.

  Here in the US, the concept of representatives was formed before any of our modern forms of communication came about. You could argue we need much less politicians, like say half of the House (the part of congress based on population) because its much easier to communicate on things.

• by cpach on 8/7/22, 10:05 AM

  Which parliament are you even referring to? US, UK, EU, other…?

  And are you sure “the open source community” would be able to agree on a shared agenda? When it comes to stuff like taxes, funding of healthcare, gun laws, abortion, etc etc.