What is the best political system?
Quintessence
whateverism?
This question often comes up and moving away from this question should
not be seen as condoning one such system over another. In many ways,
direct choice deliberately doesn't get involved in such large-scale
political discussions as to how to run the world. By definition,
direct choice seeks to move the discussion away from large-scale
politics. The more we go into large-scale politics, the more we move
away from direct-choice, since we'll be making choices for other
people, rather than leaving direct-choice into their hands.
I see direct-choice as something that relates to things close around
you, issues that affect you directly. Issues like private versus
public ownership are part of large-scale politics. Instead of seeking
to rule the world, direct-choice goes hand in hand with an approach
that starts at a smaller scale, e.g. the physical reality of a large
public school.
In theory, any school (whether private, co-op, public or corporate)
may welcome input from families as to preferences how the school is
run, on staff policies, etc. A large school could theoretically offer
a wide diversity of subjects and courses, allowing families to select
combinations by means of direct-choice. But if there is only one large
school in the area, there is little incentive for the school to offer
much choice. The lack of incentives to respond to people's preferences
makes such a school prone to become a bureaucratic, dictatorial,
inefficient and harmful monstrosity that is in denial about its
performance and refuses to improve itself.
It makes sense from economic and educational perspectives to split up
such a large school. Additionally, splitting up such a school into
separate schools is more likely to result in more direct-choice for
families. In other words, such a split up is more in line with
people's right of direct-choice. For starters, families can choose
which school they want their children to attend and they can switch to
another school if they get second thoughts. Having a number of
different schools is more likely to result in educational diversity
and pluriformity, allowing families direct-choice, as opposed to the
scenario in which there's only one large school.
Quintessence
PS: See also the discussion at:
http://direct-choice.blogspot.com/2007/01/right-of-direct-choice.html