[forum] A Call For Open Governance Of X Development

[Keith Whitwell]

Mark Vojkovich wrote:
> On Sat, 22 Mar 2003, Sven Luther wrote:
> 
> 
>>On Sat, Mar 22, 2003 at 11:53:57AM +1100, Daniel Stone wrote:
>>
>>>A 75-year old who has volunteered on the polling booths and with various
>>>civic projects has the same right to vote as anyone who's just turned
>>>18: them's the breaks.
>>
>>So, let's elect the BOD trough a slashdot poll :)))
>>
> 
> 
>    That's great, we'd have CowboyNeal on the board.
> 
>    I think Daniel's example would be better if Americans were
> demanding the right to chose the Prime Minister of France.
> While the Americans have a "vested interest" in who the
> French prime minister is, they shouldn't have a say in it.
> I think this is the difference, as David Wexelblat put it,
> between a democracy and a republic.  Not every body gets
> to vote.  This isn't a free-for-all.  The prime minister 
> of France isn't elected for the good of the world community.
> He is elected by eligible French citizens for the good of France.

Actually I think prime ministers are like the 'house majority leader' in the 
US -- they're not directly elected by the populace, but are eg. a congressman 
selected by whichever party holds the majority in the house.

So, nobody voted for Tony Blair, except of course the people living in his 
electorate, wherever that is.  But the election was run making it clear that 
if Labor won power overall in the commons, that Tony would be PM.

And who is the French PM anyway?  It's some elevated beurocrat who doesn't 
make the news outside of France.  You're thinking of Chirac, who is the 
President, and was directly elected after a close call (with someone who GWB 
might have liked better) in the first round of voting.

Thinking about it, the current XFree bod is a lot like the English House of 
Lords which until very recently was largely stocked with hereditary (who are 
in for life and will pass the privilege on to their eldest son) and life peers 
(who are in it for life, but won't pass it on).

Republics can be democracies (France), not all democracies are republics 
(England, Australia).  But none of these countries allow foreign citizens to 
vote in their elections, which is maybe what you're suggesting above.

The question then (assuming you want elections) is how to define XFree86's 
'citizens' - who gets to vote.  One answer is: 'Anyone who has code in the 
repository'.

Keith