American democracy needs a redesign

With the election over, I’ve been thinking about “fair division,” a classic problem in economics that concerns the division of a resource among people who have some claim to it.

The simplest version of this concept is familiar to most parents. Imagine that you have a cake and that cake has to be divided between two brothers. But each child prefers a certain side – say strawberry frosting on one side or sprinkles on the other. To complicate matters, you don’t indeed know each child’s preferences, because each is afraid that his brother or sister will take his favorite part (for example, messing with your brother can be more fun than taking the frosting).

The most mathematically correct solution is to let one child cut the cake and let the other child choose the piece they prefer. That way, they both feel that what they’ve ended up with is right: first because they’re incentivized to cut the cake into pieces they’re equally happy with, and second because they can choose the piece they think is better.

This “I cut, you choose” solution is found in many settings, from biblically TO UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. His study belongs to the rich field of mechanism designan “engineering” branch of economics (especially game theory) that seeks to construct institutions and processes that achieve certain outcomes that are socially or economically desirable, such as fairness, efficiency, or revenue generation.

Mechanism design is all around us. Including in a democracy. After all, a democracy is the sum of its institutions and processes – and it is only as good as those structures. Careful mechanism design equates to a functioning governance system. And right now, American democracy is in dire need of updating.

(A) democracy is the sum of its institutions and processes — and it is only as good as those structures.

As outlined by America’s founding fathers the constitutional systemthey embarked on a serious mechanism project. From the beginning, they wanted specific outcomes, such as preventing tyranny, separating powers, and guaranteeing certain liberties. Sovereignty and agency for the states were also important, so they left mechanisms such as elections, constituencies, and the allocation of electoral votes to the states to work out as they saw fit.

Many outcomes presented by our founders are ideals that we still hold dear; but, over time, we have found that some are insufficient or outdated. The most blatant example: how the original draft enshrined slavery and prevented anyone who was not a white landowner from voting.

Over time, we’ve updated the design of American democracy to ensure that all citizens can vote and that minority populations are better represented. But there are many mechanisms, including the Electoral College, for example, that I have not reviewed or analyzed. Many mechanisms no longer serve their purpose, either because our values have changed or because they have been so dramatically perverted that they have become instruments of disenfranchisement, division and distortion. This is often to the satisfaction of political elites, Republicans and Democrats alike, who are intent on preserving the apparatus that elected them.

The framers could not have predicted that presidential races would come down to a handful of electors in a few states. A swing of about 20,000 voters in three states would have changed the outcome of the 2020 race — and something similar will almost certainly happen in this election. Framers would also find problems with the fact that a candidate can win the White House with just 23% of the popular vote. They would be shocked to learn that many voters can no longer be counted on as men of integrity and that some state legislatures bow to a candidate’s commands.

The failure of the mechanism in American democracy is not limited to the Electoral College, however. It extends to most of our current democratic practices.

The failure of the mechanism in American democracy is not limited to the Electoral College, however. It extends to most of our current democratic practices. The plurality vote we use to elect our officials elevates candidates who do not win a majority of the vote and are often those who support fringe or extreme ideologies. A small one fraction of voters decides congressional and presidential primaries and the outcome in all but one hand of races is predetermined because of gerrymandering. Our system’s single-winner districts — unlike larger districts that elect multiple candidates at once, as in most healthy democracies around the world — protect office and exclude a diversity of political views.

These results point to a democracy that no longer serves us. According to the recent New York Times/Siena poll, a stunning eye 76% of survey respondents I agree that our democratic infrastructure is failing. People are worried about the future of American democracy as we face the prospect of political violence following the November 5 election. People increasingly feel that their voices do not count, that the two-party system is destructive, that political polarization is out of control, and that our political system does not support the values we hold dear and meaningful.

It is within our power to change these failed mechanisms. We can support electing the president using the popular vote, ending gerrymandering, implementing ranked-choice voting, open primaries, and multi-winner districts. These are just some of the mechanisms that would bring about more meaningful representation and better capture voter preferences. They are also known to increase turnout, discourage negative campaigning, and help counter disillusionment with politics. They bring more diversity to the political arena by raising third-party and independent candidates. Voter satisfaction is rising and with it faith in government to act on our behalf. The design of the mechanism can point the way; actually one of proposed ways to fix gerrymandering is based on the “I cut, you choose” method.

The engine of our democracy is rusty, sputtering and can no longer take us where we want. It’s time to design and build a new one.

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