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Interestingly, most of these suggested systems are not alternatives to democracy, but alternative forms of democracy. Extreme and e- democracies are simply new ways of engaging in political debate by making greater use of modern technology. This is already starting to happen and, in a way, Barbelith itself is a part of that trend.
The Big Brother system is, again, basically the system we have now with a few bells attached. Every word that is said in parliament is already avaliable to anyone who can be bothered to go to the Hansard website and Priminister's Question Time is broadcast every week on the BBC (to pitifully small audiences). Yes this system does advocate more referenda, but that hardly constitutes a sea change.
The Canton system is actually an extreme form of the republic, which is used in the USA, France, and many others. In Switzerland very little power has been devolved to central government, but all decisions are still made elected representatives.
Benign Dictatorship is a true alternative to democracy, but incredibly problematic. There is no mention in this article as to how the rulers would be put in place. Quite possibly elected once, and for life, ala Hobbs' Leviathan. Once installed these individuals/groups would rule unchallenged with no check on their use of power. I simply don't believe that, given this much freedom, many people would stay benign for long.
Demarchy is also a true alternative, and one that does not suffer from the problems of unchecked power due to the use of fixed terms and random selection. The big stumbling block here is every citizen would need to have a well grounded knowledge of all areas of policy just in case they get picked. And they don't. I think that to get this system to not just fall apart under the weight of confusion and poor decisions, everyone would have to spend all of the time that they are not ruling reading up on the issues of the day for when they are. Politics would become the full-time job of every citizen. Nothing else would get done. It's a lovely dream, but I really cannot see it working.
I'm sure there must be a functional alternative to democracy out there somewhere, and the fact that very little serious debate appears to be going on in this area does worry me. Democracy, as someone once said, is a terrible system, it's just a bit better than all the others. That does not mean that we should stop looking.
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