@Lesser Bull: Whether this would be as effective as limited franchise, I don’t know. But it seems less hopeless in terms of political feasibility. If my fairy godmother will give me two wishes, why not both?

@Alrenous: I saw the Moldbug-Hanson futarchy debate video, but I didn’t understand it very well, especially when David Friedman chimed in. There are definitely conditions under which it can be gamed, but I don’t understand what those conditions are.

Tangent: this is why I make a big deal of how science journal editors are chosen. The journal editors can directly choose who gets published. Bureaucrats follow science, by which they mean prestigious papers. Whoever can choose the next editor of Nature, especially if they have fire as well as hire, directly chooses what policies future bureaucrats write into law.

Aside: note how effectively the byzantine power structure obscures responsibility, without much attenuating the ability to direct. The main disadvantage is the slowness of the process.

Since elected officials have little influence over the permanent bureaucracy, not really.

One point which I have not seen made before: It is in the Outer Party’s interest for government to be run badly; it is in the Outer Party’s interest for government to be run by an arrogant elite. Because then the Outer Party can point to the failures and the left-wing craziness and say “See! This is why you should vote for us!”