Book Review: THE DEMOCRATIC QUALITY VECTOR

 THE DEMOCRATIC QUALITY VECTOR AND THE NEW SOCIAL AGREEMENT by Jode Himann. The book is an appropriate commentary of the present day polity, which begins with a critic of the  democratic voting system. 

Democracy, the book notes, is heralded as one of the greatest achievements of modern civilization. But, with technology as the common denominator, many forces or nefarious agents and social media exploits are meddling in the affairs, both within as well as in other countries, putting democracy at risk. Countries act in preemptive belligerence, pushing the hard-earned democracy onto a slippery slope of authoritarianism.

Author's attempt is to examine such changes, and the many planes of its manifestation. The psychological plane is identified to be akin to the one explained by Daniel Kahneman with the help of theories X and Y. Noting that the sea of humanity is not entirely composed of experts, the necessity of embracing diversity is underlined, if better decisions are to be ensured. Telling social change comes with a cost, author reminds us of the unintended  negative consequences, every innovation keep bringing, and how that cannot be absent in the political sphere. Which points to the need of polishing, lubricating or overhauling democracy, while it is in use.

A solution to these difficulties is to create voting systems that promotes the fullest engagement of citizens in their own governance, author says. A system, Proxy voting, is suggested for this. To encourage participation, and to decrease voter apathy, what is proposed is to separate feeling marginalized and expressing those feelings. One may feel so, but one's  representative  can express it with greater vigour that can lead to better results. 

To implement this in practice, the urgent need is to tackle issues like fake news and growing volumes of data, author warns. Adopting the theories of Kahneman, we need to recognize the important value of intuition in decision-making, and the value of intangible knowledge to any organization. With the new symmetry-based 6 Dimensional mathematics, and new tools such as the Democratic Quality Vector (DQV), quantification of many intangibles make it possible to arrive at a metric of intuitive knowledge. All these can can significantly enhance voting efficiency and decision making in politics or in business.

Everything is clear to me except the tools mentioned in the above paragraph. How the many dimensional mathematics act? What all will influence the democratic quality vector? I however agree wholeheartedly with the author, democracy needs to undergo maintenance. Many suggestions for which, I myself have been proposing through my 'hubs'.