Remember the “I’m Just a Bill” song from Schoolhouse Rock? In it, a singing bill describes the path it must take to become a law in the United States, from surviving committee to getting a majority of support in both the House of Representatives and the Senate and, finally, requiring the signature of the president. The nation’s founding fathers famously sought to create a cautious process through which only the most worthy of ideas could become law because they wished to constrain overzealous legislators. But this cautious impulse is not just constrained to the United States. From houses of parliament to company boards the world over, a proposal must have the support of a majority of stakeholders to have a prayer of success. If a constituency’s issues cannot gain majority support, they are labelled “the opposition” and their issues remain unsolved. Is there an alternative to the majoritarian legislative process?
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