Potential Alternatives to Democracy I

I was thinking, as you do, to what you could replace democracy with. One alternative I came up with is to use a political stock market. The idea is quite simple, and I think has some potential benefits. Any one wanting to stand for political office would submit them selves to the political equivalent of a stock exchange. Analysts would then assess the individual and give them a market value. On 'election day' the seats in any parliament would go to those individuals with the highest stock value (e.g. 100 seats to the 100 highest).

As some one, oh say Tony Blair or Charles Clarke, falls out of favour there stock price would plumit as 'ethical' investors ditched the stock. The smarter investors, however, would read the rune's and take a judgment call on the surviability of a candidate. If they were to judge that some one had some current difficulty but was likely to survive politicaly they would buy the cheaper stock and make a killing. If on the other hand the enough of the 'ethicals' drove the market downwards becuase say the candidate took us in to wars based on lies eventually they would have to be replaced.

It would also encourage new aspirent candidates to actually do something to gain political clout before getting elected. They would have to be able to impress the analysts to get a higher value. This means that we weren't electing candidates just on their promises but also on their track record. Also, to encourage a higher stock price their pay would be linked to the value of their stock.

Note to self though, insider trading should be punishable by death.