Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Quick hits

- Good idea: Reduce transactions costs for your potential employer.

- Better idea: Privatize sharks.

- Sark holds its first election to fill a democratic government in 450 years. Think constitutional reform is an 18th century topic? Not so. Here is the Wikipedia entry for Sark, "last European territory to abolish what some called classic feudalism in 2008"; note that the population is about 600, meaning that turning out "in their hundreds" could lead to a voter participation rate of...yup, 50%. I'd be curious to see the actual numbers when they come in, though-- since it's an event, you'd expect higher. Even more interesting-- 57 candidates ran, meaning that about 10% of the population was on the ballot. For the United States, that would equate to thirty million people running for office. Is it possible that everyone knows at least one person running, and would thus want to support them at the polls? Could be. Perhaps most interesting-- 28 seats are available, meaning about 5% of the population will hold public office. If the population of 600 is split over 28 seats, then all of the sudden the probabilty of being deciding vote rises considerably.

Public choice observations in the circumstance of (very) small numbers? I'm intrigued.

1 comment:

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