Survey Democracy

The author argues for a participatory democracy that is complementary to and competitive with the representative democracy of elections. Without direct citizen participation in addition to representation the principle of people's sovereignty erodes. Elected government becomes self-serving oligarchy. Regular surveys of excessive deviations from standards of distributive social justice and rationality in collective consciousness and collective conscience is the most cost-effective and efficient way of overcoming voter apathy and achieving citizens participation in government. A standing public policy of reversing such deviations can strengthen social bonds and bring closer Lincoln's dream of government by the people. No form of participatory democracy can replace the historic gain of elections. But it can counterbalance them similar to the way lower houses of parliaments historically counterbalanced upper ones. This book lays a foundation for two-track election-and-survey democracy with an advanced methodology of survey data analysis that is based on action frame of reference.