Having people pass an exam before voting

mist said:
Some time ago, during our voting period, I saw some streetinterviews where people were asked what political party they were going to vote for and why. It turned out many people didn't have a clue what plans their favourite political party actually had.

Although I don't have scientific data on this, I suspect many people make an uninformed decision when voting. They're either only aware of their favourite's standpoints (and not the standpoints of their other choices), or simply vote on someone because they they saw them on tv, heard a speech, etc.

Recently something occured to me. What if we could force all votees to make an informed decision by having them pass a multiple choice test.

What do you think?

  1. Is this plan remotely feasible, and
  2. Do you think, if it was somehow implemented, it would improve the leadership (better political leaders are picked, and they try harder to get actual results)?
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I suspect most Teabaggers would favor this, without realizing that not a single one of them could pass.
 
mist said:
What if we could force all votees to make an informed decision by having them pass a multiple choice test.
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Representative democracy is increasingly obsolete anyway, in the era of so advanced Information Technology.

We should move towards direct referendums on all major issues (leaving the small paperwork for the representative politicians), and in that context it would be very reasonable to require that a person who wants to participate in the referendum about topic X, must pass an exam where he proves general basic understanding of the (claimed) consequences of each alternative included in the vote.
 
JJM 777 said:
Representative democracy is increasingly obsolete anyway, in the era of so advanced Information Technology.

We should move towards direct referendums on all major issues (leaving the small paperwork for the representative politicians), and in that context it would be very reasonable to require that a person who wants to participate in the referendum about topic X, must pass an exam where he proves general basic understanding of the (claimed) consequences of each alternative included in the vote.
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... allowing the privileged minority who designs the tests to determine who can vote and who are disenfranchised.

Sorry, but for all the warts, the "one adult citizen, one vote" model still seems to be the only real option.

Beanbag
 
Any test that would be feasible and not discrimintory would have to be too simplistic to make any difference.
 
eeyore1954 said:
Any test that would be feasible and not discrimintory would have to be too simplistic to make any difference.
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Not necessarily. It just has to be applied as an exit test from the compulsory education system, and not as an entrance test to the polling booth. Heck, just making all high school seniors pass the same test that immigrants have to pass to attain citizenship would be an improvement--though I would like it to go even a lot farther than that.
 
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