Mob rule: Iceland crowdsources its next constitution

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

It is not the way the scribes of yore would have done it but Iceland is tearing up the rulebook by drawing up its new constitution through crowdsourcing.

As the country recovers from the financial crisis that saw the collapse of its banks and government, it is using social media to get its citizens to share their ideas as to what the new document should contain.

"I believe this is the first time a constitution is being drafted basically on the internet," said Thorvaldur Gylfason, member of Iceland's constitutional council.

"The public sees the constitution come into being before their eyes … This is very different from old times where constitution makers sometimes found it better to find themselves a remote spot out of sight, out of touch."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/09/iceland-crowdsourcing-constitution-facebook

[suffragette]

1. Interesting that "The Guardian" chose to title this "Mob rule"

rather than say, "Gov't by the people" or "Collective Constitution" or some other phrase with a positive connotation, especially since the article is positive about this process.

Example of that here:
Gylfason said he had been pleasantly surprised by the level of discussion. "There's been a lot of goodwill for what we are trying to do. The public have added much to our debate. Their comments have been quite helpful and they have had a positive effect on the outcome."

[Xipe Totec]

2. Indeed. The first thing that came to my mind was James Burke

The closing paragraphs of the last episode of The Day The World Changed - Worlds Without End:

But, ironically, the latest product of that way of doing things is a new instrument — a new system — that while it could make conformity more rigid, more totalitarian, than ever before in history, could also blow everything wide open. Because with it, we could operate on the basis that values and standards — and ethics and facts and truth — all depend on what your view of the world is — and that there may be as many views of that, as there are people.

And with this (microchip) capable of keeping a tally on those millions of opinions voiced electronically, we might be able to lift the limitations of conforming to any centralized representational form of government — originally invented, because there was no way for everybody's voice to be heard.

You might be able to give everybody unhindered, untested access to knowledge. Because the computer would do the day-to-day work — for which we once qualified the select few — in an educational system originally designed for a world where only the few could be taught.

You might end the regimentation of people, living and working in vast unmanageable cities. Uniting them instead in an electronic community, where the Himalayas and Manhattan were only a split second apart.

You might — with that and much more — break the mold that has held us back since the beginning. In a future world that we would describe as "balanced anarchy" — and they will describe as an "open society" — tolerant of every view.

Aware that there is no single privileged way of doing things.

Above all, able to do away with the greatest tragedy of our era: the centuries old waste of human talent that we couldn't or wouldn't use.

Utopia? Why? If, as I've said all along, the universe is — at any time — what you say it is ... then say!

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Burke_%28science_historian%29

[suffragette]

5. Wasn't familiar with this

Looks fascinating.

[Dark]

15. Yea, well, wait till 4chan gets a hold of this... n/t

[George Wythe]

3. Scary thought...

I can only imagine what we would end up with in the US, if we scrapped the existing, and adopted a new constitution written by modern day politicians.

[No Elephants]

11. And that's why no controversial amendment to our Constitution has passed in 60 years.

People who think we're going to get an amendment to overrule Citizens United--or any other atrocity the SCOTUS visits on us--are dreaming. Hell, we couldn't even get equal rights for women into the the U.S. Constitution.

All the more reason to make as certain as we can that Democratic Presidents are elected so that they can fill vacancies on the SCOTUS. However, if the appointments are going to be center right, we're screwn once Ginsburg becomes unable to serve. She's the Court's left of center compass.

[Demeter]

4. The Icelanders Have Shown hemselves Truly Ready for Democracy

[Vidar]

6. The world's oldest democracy continues to break new ground.

[dipsydoodle]

8. Older than Greece ?

:shrug:

[Vidar]

9. Oldest continuous democracy : I stand corrected. Began democratic rule around the 1200s I believe.

[JVS]

10. No. 1262 was when the king of Norway took over.

Also it was never a democracy, the Althing may be the oldest legislative assembly (although this description is also somewhat inaccurate as the thing also functioned as a type of court and law-making was minimal). In more modern terms, the thing was more like a convention of 36 (later 39) chieftains, who carried out their dealings with one another. And a chieftain is not elected, but rather chieftaincy was a possession transferable by sale or inheritance. It seems that there was originally a religious aspect to being a chieftain but by the time of Iceland's settlement it was not as prominent.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. And the Althing was dissolved from 1800-1874; the Isle of Man's Tynwald claims longest continuity

Parliament of Iceland, established in about 930, the oldest in the world. It was dissolved in 1800, revived in 1843 as an advisory body, and became a legislative body again in 1874.

http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0002850.html

The World’s Oldest Continuous Parliament.

The most enduring relic of Scandinavian culture in the Isle of Man is the Island’s parliament, Tynwald. After 1,000 years the world’s oldest continuous parliament normally sits in Douglas, but still meets once a year at midsummer on the Tynwald Hill at St. Johns. This was not the only meeting place for Tynwald, and like others it was given legitimacy by its closeness to a burial ground - in this case one of the oldest and most extensive on the Island - and allowed the living to be associated with land owned or administered by their forbears.

http://www.gov.im/mnh/heritage/story/tynwald.xml

[sendero]

7. Awww..

..... one country's taxpayers are refusing to pay for the bankers' folly. It scares the shit out of the oligarchs, what if Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Italy decide to do the same thing?

Those hooligans!

[lovuian]

12. they are INSPIRING!!! and THEY GET IT!!!

they are not fooled by this Shock and Awe ...

Good for Iceland!!!

[mackdaddy]

13. A "wikipedia" Constitution. Interesting Idea....

except for who gets to change it.

Would that be a Wikitution?

[WatsonT]

14. I know I frequently read comments on sites like youtube and think:

gee, I wish these people were writing our laws.

There will be a lot of amendments revolving around "n00bs" being "fags".