The duty of legislators

A representative democracy is one in which the public elects officials to govern on its behalf. All levels of government in the United States operate in this fashion, from the city council to the U.S. Congress. At all of these levels there is confusion about the duties of both elected officials and their constituents. For instance, should a legislator vote based on their own beliefs and ignore opinion polls? Or should they mirror the wishes of their constituents, since that is whom they represent?

These sound like deeply philosophical questions. They are not so deep as to be insoluble. A representative democracy has advantages over a direct democracy, a system in which laws are voted on directly. Those advantages vanish if the elected officials adopt the attitude that they are nothing more than messengers of public opinion. There is a right way and a wrong way to make policy, and the wrong way is to take a poll. This will become apparent when we examine why a representative form of government is superior to a direct form.

Direct democracy and representative democracy exist side-by-side in local government. Some laws are decided by direct democracy, such as whether to have a casino or a hotel/motel tax. Most are decided indirectly through county supervisors and city councilors.

You might wonder why everything isn?t voted on directly. Why do we need elected officials? The reason is that we as voters have limited time to devote to government. We have other matters to attend to, such as our jobs and families. We are not in a position to manage a municipality?s multi-million dollar budget. That is where the representatives come in. They do the legwork. They write the ordinances, supervise the staff and do all the other things that the rest of us don?t have time for.

When a legislator relies solely on public opinion to guide their vote, they are saying that the public shoulders the burden of investigating the issue, and that the legislators shoulder none. This is an awfully strange belief considering it is the legislator, not the public, who sits in on the committee meetings, who pores over the budget, who consults with the departmental heads. The legislator is the one who ought to be the expert. Why would an expert pass on the responsibility of making the tough decision to group of people who may have no knowledge of the subject matter?

In every walk of life except public policy, we recognize that some people are smarter than others. If you need heart surgery, you go to a doctor, not, say, a newspaper reporter. I know my limits. Another thing you definitely should not do, and what no sane person does, is take a survey of everyone about how to handle your heart condition. You may get some useful information, but it will arrive among a wave of misinformation from all the people who are not cardiologists, which is most of the population.

Governmental affairs are no different. There are people who know something about sewer plants and people who don?t. The job of the elected official is to find the people who know something.

What, then, is the voter?s responsibility? If you are a constituent, and you have useful information about an issue, you should share it with your legislator. If you don?t know anything about the subject, you should not give advice on it. For instance, I do not give pilots advice about flying before entering their plane. This seemingly obvious insight has not penetrated the realm of politics, where people share their opinions on every issue no matter how little they know about it.

I recommend to people that they refrain from voting on issues they are ignorant of, just as non-doctors refrain from giving medical advice and non-pilots refrain from giving flying lessons.

Luckily, there is something you can read that will keep you in the know ? something that will allow you to make an informed decision at the ballot box. And you?re holding it in your hands.