KSDK:
British lawmakers voted Wednesday to radically overhaul Parliament’s unelected House of Lords, approving a proposal to evict all remaining hereditary peers and to elect at least 80 percent of members.
After a series of House of Commons votes, legislators came out 305 to 267 in favor of developing laws to install a mix of 20 percent appointed and 80 percent elected members in Britain’s second chamber.
I’m not so sure that this is a good idea. I think that the British political process and the British people (as well as the American) do not benefit from further democratization. Similarly, I am for repealing the 17th Amendment so that the American Senate, the relative equivalent to the British House of Lords, has members that are elected by, and accountable to, states’ legislatures. In such a case, state governments and popular opinion can check each other in Congress. In the British system, the hereditary aristocracy and popular opinion can check each other (in theory).
