Mencius Moldbug had an interesting government setup in his blogpost last week. He focused not on franchise-style democracy, but rather on running a nation like a joint-stock corporation, with shareholders having only the power to select/elect the CEO.

http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2009/07/secession-liberty-and-dictatorship.html

That’s a pretty good way to ensure the nation as a whole stays productive, but doesn’t do much for ensuring that the system isn’t abused. Perhaps in addition to owning shares, shareholders must also have served in the armed forces… hmmm… too restrictive, it seems.

I had a crazy idea about having some checks and balances, scrapping the CEO idea (how one can avoid the abuse of power in such a scenario is impossible) : shareholders wield political power in the form of being able to select members of a legislative lower house, in charge of passing bills, requiring a 2/3rds majority.

Military veterans who have completed their service, but still beholden to the constitution, whatever it might be, have the power to select members of a senate, who would have the power to strike down laws requiring only 1/3rds to succeed.

The franchise to elect a president with substantive powers would require a voter to have both military service AND being a shareholder.

The way I see voting nowadays is this: What gives a person the right to decide the fate of another, since that is essentially what voting is about? It’s not a born right; you have to earn it, through military service and personal wealth (may be inherited tho).

The upshot of this is that it automatically weeds out the unmotivated, the unproductive, the lazy (mostly). How the system may be abused by those who do have the power to vote may be a problem, though I think the shareholders and veterans will mostly be countervailing forces playing off each other.