“EU corruption scandal: MEP denies Qatar bribery after over €1m seized”
The BBC article beneath the headline summed up the December-2022 European Parliament scandal:
“Eva Kaili was arrested on Saturday and has had her assets frozen.
Greek MEP Eva Kaili has denied involvement in an alleged bribery scandal involving World Cup host Qatar at the European Parliament.
She is one of four suspects charged, after Belgian investigators found large sums in cash in homes and a suitcase.
MEPs have voted - by 625 to one - to strip Ms Kaili of her role as one of its 14 vice-presidents.
Parliament leader Roberta Metsola has spoken of "difficult days for European democracy".
Qatar has denied any wrongdoing.”
All I can say is, here we go again.
Like me, I am sure that you, dear reader, are sick and tired of hearing about corrupt elected officials.
Difficult days, indeed. Is there a way out?
In search of what is newest, I found it in what is oldest.
It is a system you never heard of.
* * *
I spent over 20 years in politics. My mother once asked me the perennial question:
What is at the “bottom” of “all that.”
My answer: over 95% of politicians are not politicians. They are small businessmen who want to be big businessmen. Politics – what to do about Putin and the war in Ukraine, North Korea, public education financing, climate change, taxation and revenue matters – bore them to tears unless they see a way to convert them into cold hard cash to feather their nests.
So much for the “all that.”
As for the “bottom”:
Elections attract the wrong kind of people. After decades of working in numerous campaigns at all levels, I realized that political candidates fall into one of two groups:
*Full-fledged thieves, fraudsters. Psychopaths, sociopaths.
*Well-intentioned people – they truly want to “serve their communities” - but are psychologically weak. Once in office, they are easily corrupted. Time after time, year after year, I watched them sink beneath relentless waves of lawyers and lobbyists. Most will end up selling out for a baked potato at the palace. End of story.
There is of course theoretically a third group: good people who are not corrupted and go on to become true statesmen. Unfortunately, this group is so small as to be inconsequential. I have known and worked with hundreds of elected officials; I can put only one man squarely in this third category.
If the electoral system attracts the wrong kind of people, what is the alternative? In fact, is there an alternative that does not violate basic principles of democracy?
The answer is yes. Aristotle and other ancient Greeks identified and discussed it:
Selection by lot.
If you want to be Mayor, for example, you put your name in a hat. The winner would be selected at random in a public drawing.
To be eligible you would have to meet certain legal requirements: age, not have a criminal record, be a resident of the town, etc. It would be best to have the requirements signed, sealed and delivered by a public referendum. A creation of, by and for the people.
The requirements would of course differ by office. Eligibility for the U.S. Senate would not be the same as that for a county commissioner.
Selection by lot could be introduced gradually, in which case a mixed electoral/lot system would exist.
Under a lot system, would terms in public office be limited? Should re-election be decided by a simple up or down, yes or no vote? Clearly, a host of questions needs to be addressed.
If the legal requirements are properly drawn up, you would likely see a dramatic improvement in the overall quality of public officials. Maybe, you would even see an increase in the number of people in the third category of statesmen. One thing is certain – you won´t see it in the existing system.
To be sure, no set of legal requirements can exclude crooks from public office. The Eva Kaillis of this world could still sneak in; however, I submit they would be far less numerous than at present. Instead of being center ring, they would be a sideshow-feakshow of abnormally-developed people and animals.
I will bet you never heard of the selection by lot system. The resounding silence is part and parcel of the United States status quo. To wit:
Do not expect selection by lot to ever be attempted in the U.S. even on a temporary experimental basis. In a corrupt system, solutions are known but cannot be implemented.