Some things are best left to the experts. I wouldn't want my doctor or the engineer who designed my car making technical decisions on the basis of straw polls. Those are best left to those with specific knowledge.
Yet would we want experts with specific knowledge deciding on the price of things in the shops? I hope not. It has been tried and was not a success. We know that allowing markets to decide prices collaboratively ensures folk get what they want, at the price they're willing to pay.
So what about our laws? Since Plato, there's been quite a debate. Is making law something best left to elite guardians or can it be entrusted to the demos?
A couple of days ago, I began a wikipolitics experiment to see if, in this digital age, it is possible to use the wisdom of crowds to draft legislation.
The Great Repeal Bill - an idea first mooted in The Plan: 12-months to renew Britain, which I wrote with Daniel Hannan - ought to be a good suitable subject for such an experiment. Why? In order to contribute you don't really need much specialist knowledge - just personal experience of overregulation.
So why don't you take part in drafting this wiki-law - the Great Repeal Bill?
It could be that the trolls take over and the experiment fails. But when I last checked, it seemed to me as if a real draft Bill is taking shape online through collaborative thinking.
Why not join in this experiment now? Click here to take part.
