It is an interesting suggestion and I had not come across the idea before and it is great to have people thinking of new innovative policy ideas. I agree that this idea is worth investigating.
I think my main point to add is just to set out the wider context. I think it is worth people who are interested in this being aware that there is already a vast array of tried and tested policy solutions that are known to encourage more long term thinking in governments. I would lean towards the view that almost all of the ideas I list below: have very strong evidence of working well, would be much easier to push for than age-weighted voting, and would have a bigger effect size than age-weighted voting.
Here’s the list (example of evidence it helps in brackets)
* Longer election cycles (UK compared to Aus) * A non-democratic second house (UK House of Lords) * Having a permanent neutral civil service (as in UK) * An explicit statement of policy intent setting out a consistent cross-government view that policy makers should think long-term. * A formal guide to best practice on discounting or on how to make policy that balances the needs of present and future generations. (UK Treasury Green Book, but more long term focused) * An independent Office for Future Generations, or similar, with a responsibility to ensure that Government is acting in a long term manner. (as in Wales) * Independent government oversight bodies, (UKs National Audit Office, but more long term focused) * Various other combinations of technocracy and democracy, where details are left to experts. (UK’s Bank of England, Infrastructure Commission, etc, etc) * A duty on Ministers to consider the long term. (as in Wales) * Horizon scanning and foresight skills, support, tools and training brought into government (UK Gov Office for Science). * Risk management skills, support, tools and training brought into government (this must happen somewhere right?). * Good connections between academia and science and government. (UK Open Innovation Team) * A government body that can support and facilitate others in government with long term planning. (UK Gov Office for Science, but ideally more long term focused). * Transparency of long term thinking. Through publication of statistics, impact assessments, etc (Eg. UK Office for National Statistics) * Additional democratic oversight of long term issues (UK parliamentary committees) * Legislatively binding long term targets (UKs climate change laws) * Rules forcing Ministers to stay in position longer (untested to my knowledge) * Being a dictatorship (China, it does work although I don’t recommend)
As an aside I have a personal little bugbear with people focusing on the voting system when they try to think about how to make policy work. It is a tiny tiny part of the system and one where evidence of how to do it better is often minimal and tractability to change is low. I have written about this here: https://​​forum.effectivealtruism.org/​​posts/​​cpJRB7thJpESTquBK/​​introducing-gpi-s-new-research-agenda#Zy8kTJfGrY9z7HRYH Also my top tip for anyone thinking about tractable policy options is to start with asking: do we already know how to make significant steps to solve this problem, from existing policy best practice. (I think in this case we do.)
It is an interesting suggestion and I had not come across the idea before and it is great to have people thinking of new innovative policy ideas. I agree that this idea is worth investigating.
I think my main point to add is just to set out the wider context. I think it is worth people who are interested in this being aware that there is already a vast array of tried and tested policy solutions that are known to encourage more long term thinking in governments. I would lean towards the view that almost all of the ideas I list below: have very strong evidence of working well, would be much easier to push for than age-weighted voting, and would have a bigger effect size than age-weighted voting.
Here’s the list (example of evidence it helps in brackets)
* Longer election cycles (UK compared to Aus)
* A non-democratic second house (UK House of Lords)
* Having a permanent neutral civil service (as in UK)
* An explicit statement of policy intent setting out a consistent cross-government view that policy makers should think long-term.
* A formal guide to best practice on discounting or on how to make policy that balances the needs of present and future generations. (UK Treasury Green Book, but more long term focused)
* An independent Office for Future Generations, or similar, with a responsibility to ensure that Government is acting in a long term manner. (as in Wales)
* Independent government oversight bodies, (UKs National Audit Office, but more long term focused)
* Various other combinations of technocracy and democracy, where details are left to experts. (UK’s Bank of England, Infrastructure Commission, etc, etc)
* A duty on Ministers to consider the long term. (as in Wales)
* Horizon scanning and foresight skills, support, tools and training brought into government (UK Gov Office for Science).
* Risk management skills, support, tools and training brought into government (this must happen somewhere right?).
* Good connections between academia and science and government. (UK Open Innovation Team)
* A government body that can support and facilitate others in government with long term planning. (UK Gov Office for Science, but ideally more long term focused).
* Transparency of long term thinking. Through publication of statistics, impact assessments, etc (Eg. UK Office for National Statistics)
* Additional democratic oversight of long term issues (UK parliamentary committees)
* Legislatively binding long term targets (UKs climate change laws)
* Rules forcing Ministers to stay in position longer (untested to my knowledge)
* Being a dictatorship (China, it does work although I don’t recommend)
I hope to find time to do more work to collate suggestions and the evidence for them and do a thorough literature review
(If anyone wants to volunteer to help then get in touch). Some links here. My notes are at: https://​docs.google.com/​document/​d/​1KGLc_6bKhi5ClZPGBeEQIDF1cC4Dy8mo/​edit#heading=h.mefn6dbmnz2See also: http://​​researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/​​documents/​​LLN-2019-0076/​​LLN-2019-0076.pdf
As an aside I have a personal little bugbear with people focusing on the voting system when they try to think about how to make policy work. It is a tiny tiny part of the system and one where evidence of how to do it better is often minimal and tractability to change is low. I have written about this here: https://​​forum.effectivealtruism.org/​​posts/​​cpJRB7thJpESTquBK/​​introducing-gpi-s-new-research-agenda#Zy8kTJfGrY9z7HRYH Also my top tip for anyone thinking about tractable policy options is to start with asking: do we already know how to make significant steps to solve this problem, from existing policy best practice. (I think in this case we do.)
Also I do plan to write this up as a top level post soon