Open Ministry Crowdsources Laws In Finland

First time accepted submitter emakinen writes "The new Citizens' Initiative service started today in Finland. On the Open Ministry website, anyone can present an idea for a law or initiative. If the idea wins enough support, the ministry's volunteer workers will work on it and turn it into a presentable bill for the MPs to chew over. If 50,000 citizens of voting age agree on a bill Parliament has to take it up."

Re:The only drawback

[buchner.johannes]

Of course, kidding, 50,000 is 1% of the population.

Although nobody is yet able to register support...

[solarissmoke]

There is, however, one obstacle that the Open Ministry and the entire citizens’ initiative law is already facing.

The Ministry of Justice should have a website where people can sign the initiatives. To be legally valid, the signing of an initiative requires a bank identifier code or some other form of accepted online signature to prove the signee is who he or she says he is.

The Ministry of Justice has not even commenced the constructing of such a system. It will not be up and running before the end of the year at the earliest.

Calculus error

[vikingpower]

The real drawback is that it only takes $250,000 to pay 50,000 citizens $50 each to vote on crazy stuff to put before parliament...

It takes $ 2,500,000 to pay 50,000 citizens 50 each FTFY

Re:Although nobody is yet able to register support

[Luckyo]

So I will sign with my banking credentials (pretty much everyone has them here nowadays, they're offered for pretty much any new bank account). You just get a series of links containing "confirm your identity with your bank", click your bank, it takes you to the page of your bank where you enter your banking credentials and confirm that you want to be recognised by that site.

Whole process takes about 30 seconds.

Re:Although nobody is yet able to register support

[tapanitarvainen]

"You just get a series of links containing "confirm your identity with your bank", click your bank, it takes you to the page of your bank where you enter your banking credentials and confirm that you want to be recognised by that site. Whole process takes about 30 seconds."

Sounds like a wet dream of the phishing industry.

Not really, since the credentials aren't reusable: you have a list of key-value pairs, each used only once, in random order. Moreover, payments require separate confirmation (second key-value match), so even man-in-the-middle attack with identification-only site wouldn't allow stealing your money (well, not that easily anyway).

Re:Switzerland?

[Kjella]

Since you seem to be omitting some details:

*) Deportation of foreigners convicted of serious crimes like murder, rape or other grave sex crime, robbery, human trafficking, drug trade, burglary or abuse of benefits. It not like you get deported for jaywalking or shoplifting.
*) Building minarets is forbidden by law, yes. (in English an interdiction is typically issued by a court, parliaments make law)
*) No statute of limitations for child molesters (no prescription is a bad translation)
*) Life sentence for non-treatable, extremely dangerous rapists. It does not apply to all of them.

I think only 2) would fail under the US constitution, 3) and 4) are mostly already so and 1) would probably be possible.