News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Thatcher killed the UK’s superfast broadband before it ev... by johndoe0815 on Thursday April 21, 2022 @04:00PM (#31114507)
Maybe a first step to discourage this would be to restrict the time the chancellor or any minister can be in office to two election periods (like the US president). Sixteen years of Kohl and Merkel governments, respectively, paralyzed the country and hindered progress especially in the digital sector.
Re:Thatcher killed the UK’s superfast broadband before it ev... by guerrilla on Thursday April 21, 2022 @04:02PM (#31114527)
Or just ban public officials from holding stock and from taking on jobs at state clients...
Re:Thatcher killed the UK’s superfast broadband before it ev... by hetspookjee on Thursday April 21, 2022 @04:16PM (#31114657)
They'll find a way, of that you can be sure. I think restricting the term is the only way possible to limit corruption in that regard.
Re:Thatcher killed the UK’s superfast broadband before it ev... by prirun on Thursday April 21, 2022 @06:58PM (#31116196)
Lottery elections: put people in office like jury duty. You don't want to be President? Too bad! You're qualified, have a good background (whatever that is), people have vouched for your character, so ... you're it for 4 years!

I'd trust my next door neighbor to be President more than someone who actually wants to be President.

Re:Thatcher killed the UK’s superfast broadband before it ev... by guerrilla on Thursday April 21, 2022 @07:11PM (#31116310)
Liquid democracy. You can assign to your vote to anyone and reclaim it at any time for any reason. "Representatives" would just be people who a lot of people temporarily assigned their votes to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_democracy

Re:Thatcher killed the UK’s superfast broadband before it ev... by screenbreakout on Friday April 22, 2022 @12:10AM (#31118103)
There's what's called stochocracy or as Wiki calls it Sortition , but I think it needs to take the whole population into account, depending on where you live. and using a polling system where even 20% of yes to a proposal (be it local, regional or national) allows a limited trial to go ahead... as to the larger question as to why our political masters are out of touch..power corrupts, vested interests and economic predominance in a society based on printing money to pollute the planet and producing a processed lifestyle.. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition#:~:text=In%20gover....
Re:Thatcher killed the UK’s superfast broadband before it ev... by ta123457864 on Friday April 22, 2022 @01:35PM (#31125088)
This is how ancient Athens did it, I think, and I agree we should give it a go.

Politicians are becoming like a caste, much too similar to each other and with very little exposure to real life.

Re:Thatcher killed the UK’s superfast broadband before it ev... by fmmlp on Thursday April 21, 2022 @07:25PM (#31116417)
Yes, Borges style: don't allow anyone who wants to be president to be it.
Re:Thatcher killed the UK’s superfast broadband before it ev... by wongarsu on Thursday April 21, 2022 @05:15PM (#31115287)
Because the US government isn't captured by corporate interests? They rank significantly worse than Germany on the Global Corruption Index [1] and on the Corruption Perception Index [2]. In a global comparison both are great, but relative to each other the US really isn't an example Germany can look up to.

The chance of a government staying in government for a long time also means that governments have to think long-term because they might still be in government when the consequences come around. In the US system the optimal strategy is to do things that look good in the short term but backfire as soon as your term limit expires. That way you look good, and the next president (who's with near certainty from the opposition party) looks bad.

I'd be more in favor of passing an age limit, but I'm well aware that that has no chance of happening.

1: https://risk-indexes.com/global-corruption-index/

2: https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021

Re:Thatcher killed the UK’s superfast broadband before it ev... by MomoXenosaga on Thursday April 21, 2022 @09:37PM (#31117288)
To be fair the US is not actually corrupt. They have very legally and democratically signed over the state to corporations.
Re:Thatcher killed the UK’s superfast broadband before it ev... by trasz on Friday April 22, 2022 @03:53AM (#31119286)
It’s still corruption, just legal and formalized.
Re:Thatcher killed the UK’s superfast broadband before it ev... by JamisonM on Thursday April 21, 2022 @10:15PM (#31117490)
People always be linking to the Corruption Perception Index, there may be no worse resource for assessing actual corruption: "The CPI scores and ranks countries/territories based on how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be by experts and business executives."

Singapore's consistent ranking near the top is always hilarious to me!

Re:Thatcher killed the UK’s superfast broadband before it ev... by arlort on Friday April 22, 2022 @02:02AM (#31118694)
Yes, and in other aspects having a stable leadership for long (and it's not like we're talking about eons, it's 4 elections) greatly benefited Germany

People elected them and their party, their party had chosen them for the position. It's not like they forced anyone to put them there.

Term limits in democracies make very little sense when they affect a President or other directly elected positions of great personal power

They make no sense for chancellors or prime ministers who in any case are going to mostly be controlled by the parliament

Re:Thatcher killed the UK’s superfast broadband before it ev... by inglor_cz on Friday April 22, 2022 @02:57AM (#31119026)
I disagree on the term limit topic.

Democracies benefit from change. Indeed I would argue that cadre change is their kill app. But it must be happening.

The same top politician will employ the same ministers, consultants etc., thus slowly creating an ossifying structure that aggregates a lot of mistakes of the same type. It is a process that reminds me of inbreeding in biology. Small pathologies slowly become more pronounced.

As we live longer and longer, we run into a risk that our Senates etc. will turn into gerontocracies of 80+ year old people and that a typical intern will be fifty.

Re:Thatcher killed the UK’s superfast broadband before it ev... by moffkalast on Thursday April 21, 2022 @05:20PM (#31115334)
It's still the same party in charge, it's not like much would change in that case. But yes, every bit helps.