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WORLDWIDE DIRECT DEMOCRACY

Newsletter (funded, and written by Jiri Polak)

Vol.4 (No.1) March 2002

 

Democracy and the Causes of Wars

by Jiri Polak

In the 1980s, when studying political science (Lund, Sweden), I came across a report which summed up the results of a research project called About the Possibility and Desirability of Peace. The authors were prominent American economists, as well as social and cultural scientists. The conclusion (by which the authors themselves were alarmed) was: War and war production had become an inherent component of the American economic, social and cultural system. The establishment of permanent peace would seriously destabilize this system. Therefore, Peace is neither possible nor desirable.

Amazed and shocked, I mentioned this report to the Professor of International Politics. He frowned and said sourly, "This is not yet established. To elucidate the causes of wars, more research is needed."

Research! After that, I kept my mouth shut, so as not to jeopardize my prospective PhD. But I did not stop thinking.

There is no shortage of "research" about this subject in politological literature. A summary which, I believe, is still valid, is presented in Rosen/Jones: The Logic of International Relations. These authors mention 12 presumed causes of wars: 1.Power asymmetries; 2.Nationalism, separatism, and irredentism; 3.International social Darwinism; 4.Communication failure and mutual misperception; 5.Runaway and uncontrolled arms races; 6.The promotion of internal integration through external conflict; 7.Instinctual aggression, cultural propensities to violence, and war/peace cycles; 8.Economic and scientific stimulation; 9.The military-industrial complex; 10.Relative deprivation; 11.Population limitation; 12.Conflict resolution.

The comment on these presumed causes, presented by Rosen and Jones, is extremely superficial and, to a great extent misleading. It doesn't take a genius to see that there are different possible levels of analysis, different causes in different situations, as well as different types of wars. The conventional, mainstream approach suggests that the causes of wars are due to some mysterious objective forces beyond human control. In other words, after all, nobody can really be blamed. Rosen and Jones say their own explanation is the last one mentioned, i.e. conflict resolution. Hardly anyone can object to this. But what conflicts are resolved by wars? The way these authors treat this subject implies that what they mean are conflicts among states or societies. That´s nonsense.

Once upon a time, Karl Marx spoke about "the misery of philosophy". Today, it would be very easy to write an essay on "the misery of mainstream political science". Let's use plain common sense.

We should distinguish between wars in which whole populations are spontaneously involved and wars instigated and organized by their leaderships. Wars of the first type have occurred and can only occur in very primitive societies like African bushmen or the head hunters of New Guinea. Wars among more developed societies can take place only as long as the populations are stupid, ill-informed and passive enough to let themselves be manipulated and slaughtered by their leaders. This was the case of both World Wars, the cold war, and tens of other wars since then. There has never been any conflict between the people of the USA and the peoples of Japan, Russia, Lybia, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq etc. etc. The conflicts Rosen and Jones see as the explanation of wars are conflicts among oligarchies, not among ordinary citizens.

Let´s suppose that, before any war is started, the people would have the opportunity of saying ´yes´ or ´no´ in a referendum, after having been given all information needed, and after the conflict situation had been judged by citizen juries or subjected to scientific deliberative polling. How many wars would we have? Not a single one! Above a certain minimum level of social development, the underlying cause of all wars is the respective societies´ undemocratic political systems in the field of international politics. The way mainstream political "science" treats this problem is a gigantic bluff.

Only if we realize this can we properly understand the paramount importance of introducing elements of direct democracy into the structures of representative government. This necessity is most acute in the USA, the biggest war machine on earth. Ordinary people outside the USA cannot influence American politics, in spite of the fact that, at any moment, they could become its innocent victims. But there is something they can do: They can support American movements for direct democracy, particularly that represented by the illustrious assembly gathered recently in Williamsburg, Virginia. By supporting this organization, we increase our children's´ and grand-children's´ chances of survival.

The Democracy Symposium

In Honor of Edwin & Joyce Koupal

February 16-18, - Williamsburg, Virginia

Senator Mike Gravel

A detailed and exhaustive report is not yet at hand, but let me quote a few comments put forward by Prof.Ted Becker (www.auburn.edu/tann):

"(1) Very well organized. 
(2) All the presenters were excellent. 
(3) Mike ….was an excellent and inspiring leader… which was necessary to achieve the goals of the Conference 
(4) If one of the goals of the conference was to put together a larger core of the "movement", then I think this was accomplished by the Conference. This core can be broadened and strengthened in the next 6 months via a moderated listserve discussion to streamline the Dem Amend and Dem Act… which seemed to be what the consensus of the group there wanted. 
(5) One of the great achievements of the Conference was to gather and showcase a group of the highest quality, articulate and extremely influential legal scholars who are willing to stand up and advocate the argument that we can amend the Constitution outside of Art V … with a sound legal, philosophical and historical basis. This puts the movement on a firm constitutional foundation, the significance of which is immensely important to achieving our long range objectives… and to dealing with extremely hostile, biased and ignorant media, legal and academic establishments. 
(6) The overall superior quality of everything at the Conference provided a perfect set of conditions for much interpersonal networking and collaborative feelings that developed during the Conference. The big screen TV highlighted the high quality of thought and the general sense of collegiality and interpersonal warmth that dominated the Conference. This paid high dividends the final morning when a number of people became financial stakeholders in the collective endeavor of Philadelphia II and the Dem Foundation. … 
(8) I personally think that this Conference needs to be compared to the one in Seneca Falls, NY in the 1840s which was the official start of the Women's Movement in the USA. Sometime in the future, the aims of the initiative at all levels of government in the USA … will come to pass… and this Conference will be as important to its success as was the Seneca Falls one to the XIX Amend … and the Women's Liberation Movement in the 1960s and 1970s. 
(9) I know it won't take 80 years for us to get there … but we need to get to work fast to get as large a consensus among us to agree to the final version of the Dem Amend and Dem Act that will start the movement in September in Philly. And then we become the core of that movement as it grows into whatever it metamorphs into in the future."

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PHILOSOPHY - DISCUSSION

In response to Mr. Donald Kemner´s critical remarks, I want to stress that the word transcendence, as used by me, is a purely technical term which has no religious meaning whatsoever. It simply means a belief system according to which the phenomena under examination obey objective laws independent of these phenomena. By contrast, immanence means any belief system according to which no such laws exist. Structures and behavior patterns are generated by the respective phenomena themselves. Rule by political elites, i.e. purely representative government, can be considered as legitimate only as long as both the elites and the citizens are believed to live in the same transcendent, objective reality. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, in all branches of the Western cultural sphere - science, art, literature as well as social life - we have witnessed a progressing disintegration of this transcendent concept of reality. This trend destroys the legitimacy of elite rule and provides philosophical foundations for direct democracy.

In the Chinese cultural sphere, transcendence has not yet been shaken as in the West. Chinese philosophy is dominated by Confucian esthetic dualism, profoundly different from all philosophical currents familiar to us. By contrast, Indian philosophy has been immanent from the very beginning, but its immanence is trans-individual and therefore incompatible with the bulk of Western thought. (See two articles I have published in the Taiwanese magazine Chinese Culture - East-West Paradigm Convergence, June 1984 and China´s Prospects, June 1986.) With the progress and increasing dominance of Western culture all over the world, western-type immanence is bound to eventually prevail in these two cultural spheres - and all other spheres - as well.

HOW SAFE IS INTERNET VOTING? (continued)

Mr.Mirek Kolar, 12 April:

"I am attaching an article discussing the increasing vulnerability of the existing commercial electronic networks. Although I believe in the potential use of ATM-like technology for voting on e.g. nation-wide scale, and that it could be implemented immediately if there is enough political will, the attached article shows that creating a safe, 100% fraud proof network needed to this purposes may be much tougher (i.e. prohibitively expensive) than we are imagining today."

Attached: Summary prepared by TechRepublic´s John Connel quoting Cybercrime: How technology makes it easy and what to do about it, a recent report from Auerbach Publications; written by Brad Oates, chief executive officer of LEXIS-NEXIS Risk Solution Group. For more on fighting cybercrime, check out the following TechRepublic articles:

Eight tips for justifying security infrastructure investments

Four ways small companies can thwart politically motivated cyber attacs

Cybercrime gov.: A growing legal resource for technology leaders

 

Mr.Aki Orr, 13 April:

"Cybercrime in the commercial domain is one thing. Cybercrime in the political domain is another. E-voting fraud is much simpler than E-commerce fraud. All we need make sure is that each vote is correctly recorded and no votes have been added or subtracted. We can have the following crimes: 1.Person A votes for person B; 2.Someone erases, or adds, votes. IF voters have unique ID codes, and can check immediately how their votes were registered, the first problem is solved. IF votes are registered in a number of independent computers, it is rather difficult to erase or add votes to all of them. Comparing totals will reveal tampering. Neither of these problems is unsurmountable."

Mr.Bernard Clayson:

"You still don´t get it, Aki, the odds are stacked in favour of the ´other´ side i.e. the hackers. How many hackers are in the cyber-space? OK, assuming you can identify there has been interference, what do you do about it? Is the vote declared null? How many times does the system have to be ´interfered´ with to negate the vote? How do you check how many valid votes there are? They find one chink in the armour and the system will be spammed with robots, how to seize up the ´government´ in one easy lesson."

Mr.Mirek Kolar:

"Aki, there is also the intercepting the votes, changing votes in the total tabulation only, keeping the original votes in the intruders´ database, and report back to voter queries their true vote. Or casting votes in the name of all those who did not want to participate in a particular vote."

( continued in the June Newsletter)

 

INTERNATIONAL

USA

Information from Mr.M.Dane Waters, I&R Institute, Washington.

During the latest period, we have received several updates, three of which in 2001. From the 4 December Update I quote: "A Federal Judge in Idaho ruled in the Institute's favor striking down county distribution requirements for initiative petitions. This is a tremendous victory for supporters of the initiative process. It is uncertain if the state will appeal the decision, but if they do, the Institute will continue to fight. …"

10 December 2001:

"If I had a dollar for every call I have received regarding our case against the U.S. Postal Service, the Institute would never have to raise another cent! In all seriousness, the amount of calls I am receiving just goes to show how important this case really is. The unfortunate news is that it is a case that is going to take a while to resolve. Not only it is going to take time, but money as well … Following is an update that I received from our attorney handling the case. The bottom line is that the U.S. Attorneys Office (the entity representing the so called private Postal Service) is making the case as difficult as possible for us. But we will continue and ultimately prevail."

11 January:

"…It´s a new year, but unfortunately many of the same battles are still here. There is way too much to tell you in the intro so you will just to read on. In this issue you will read about Governor Pataki´s call for I&R, the Oregon State Supreme Court throwing out term limits on technical grounds, how store owners in Alaska have convinced the state court to ban petitioners and how the Governor of Ohio is being accused of wrongful conduct in trying to stop an iniciative …"

17 January:

"2002 is shaping up to be a big year for I&R. In this update you will read more about Pataki´s State-of-the State address where he discussed the creation of I&R in New York; you will read a great article by Fox News that discusses how lawmakers are working to overturn initiatives passed by the people; you will read more about Oregon courts overturning initiatives and last (but most importantly) you will read about the status of the Institute´s case against the U.S, Postal Service…"

25 January:

"Following is news from California to Massachusetts, from Florida to Washington State - we have news from every corner of the country. If that wasn´t enough, I have also included some information about the ongoing debate about drafting a European wide constitution that could ultimately be put forth as a referendum to the people. …"

6 February:

"In this update you will read about a new book from one of the Institute´s Senior Research Fellows, Mads Qvortrup, that is a comparative study of referendum from around the world. You will also read about a new Cato Policy Report that discusses "Tax and Expenditure Limitation Initiatives". Additionally - speaking of tax initiatives, I have included an article about some controversy brewing in Washington State about tax activist Tim Eyman."

11 February:

"In this update you will find the final report issued by "The Speaker´s Commission on the California Initiative Process" along with information on how the initiative process increases voter turnout. You will also find information from ABC News about upcoming ballot measures as well as an update on an attempt in Montana to overturn the term limits - initiative that was passed in 1992. …"

(The complete text of these updates can be found on the I&R Institute´s websites:

http://www.iandrinstitute.org and http://www.ballotwatch.org )

 

EUROPE

In the discussion channel democracy-europé@yahoogroups.com mailto:democracy-europé@yahoogroups.com, a lively discussion takes place almost every day. Important participants are e.g. Mr.Franz Isemann, Mr.Anthony Coughlan, Mr.Bernard Clayson, Dr.Herta Kunerth, and others. On 9 January, we received a seminal contribution from Mr.Paul Ruppen, editor of the Europa-Magazin, Zurich. I quote:

"For me the discussion ´nation-state versus EU´ doesn't make any sense, because an EU with state characteristics is a nation-state… What we should discuss is if we want to have smaller (cooperating) states or larger states (superpowers). According to my values the case is clear: in smaller countries power is nearer to the people, power control is easier and the people of a territory can make decisions according to the preferences of its majority. In the EU, which I don't consider as a peace-project but as an attempt to reproduce the classical European nationalism on a higher level (because the former super powers as France, Germany and GB can't play this role any more alone), power will be more or less controlled by the multinational firms … The aim of the militarization of EU is to give the EU-corporations a military arm in order to protect their markets and natural resources worldwide. …

The World Wars can't be attributed to the principle of organizing politics in territorial states, but to the lack of democracy and decentralization in states as France, former Germany, Great Britain. What we need for peace is not the reproduction of undemocratic centralized structures on a higher level, but the decentralization and democratization of the existing territorial states. For that democratization I find the introduction of direct democratic instruments on all levels of the states (initiative and referendum) essential. I find it a loss of time to strive for such instruments on the EU level, because on that level, these instruments will serve only lobbies which have already too much power in the EU. Because history (USA, Switzerland) shows that direct democracy is introduced by a historical process which starts on the lowest levels. Because more pseudo-democracy on the EU level just gives EU more pseudo-legitimacy. So it's better to concentrate on the lower levels, to fight further centralization on the EU-level and to get back power from the EU afterwards. …"

 

18 February, information from Mr.Bruno Kaufmann, IRI Europe President:

"Welcome to our new Email-Newsletter-Service - the IRI EUROPÉ WATCH - bringing to you periodically a comprehensive bundle of News, Trends, Outlooks and Background on Direct Democracy in Europé." See: www.iri-europé.org For contacts: info@iri-europé.org

 

SWITZERLAND

11 February, information from Mr.Heiko Dittmer:

"On the Swiss federal government home-page (www.admin.ch) you can see how the Swiss citizens are (also) informed about direct democracy activities. See: Volksabstimmung vom 3.März 2002: http://www.admin.ch/ch/index.de.html

9 January, information from Mr.Vladimir Rott:

Interesting working papers (works of Bruno S.Frey and Reiner Eichenberger), published by the University of Zurich, can be found at http://iew.unizh.ch

19 January, information from Mr. Steven Clift:

Democracies Online Newswire - http://www.e-democracy.org/do

"The Swiss national government released a major online voting report today in their three main languages: http://e-gov.admin.ch/vote/index.html "

GERMANY

7 January, information from Dr.Michael Macpherson:

"Mehr Demokratie hat jetzt mit dem "Volksbegehrens-Bericht 2001" eine Bilanz der direkten Demokratie in den 16 Bundesländern vorgelegt. ... Der Bericht kan im Internet abgerufen werden, er steht hier auch als PDF-Datei zum Download bereit:

http://www.mehr-demokratie.de/bu/dd/vb-bericht2001.htm

Information about latest developments in Germany can also be obtained from the 1/02 issue of the Zeitschrift für direkte Demokratie (articles e.g.: Definition: Demokratiedefizit; Interview mit Heidi Hautala; Entwurf für EU-Bürgerentscheid; and many others).

Planning Cells:

Westdeutscher Verlag has published Peter C.Dienel: Die Planungszelle der Bürger als Chance, 5.Auflage mit Statusreport 2002. Highly relevant for the DD process!

19 January, Neuss:Grevenbroicher Zeitung, Rheinische Post, published a long article about recent applications of the PC model: Bilanz: 20 Monate nach dem Bürgergutachten.

In November, at the 2nd NDDIE Conference in Prague, on my inquiry, Mr.Franz Isemann, chairman of the Europe/Welt Section of Mehr Demokratie, assured me that the Section had established regular cooperation with Prof.Dienel. This cooperation is bound to increase the credibility and efficiency of the I&R process. JP

 

CANADA

4 February, Mr.Lorenzo Bouchard drew our attention to his new websites:

http://mypage.direct.ca/l/bouchar and http://www.universityinvictoria.com

28 January, information from Mr.George S.Sagi:

"The launching of the book, Social Consciousness: Voices of the Concerned, has marked the beginning of a unique publishing effort by the Participatory Direct Democracy Association, PDDA, in Winnipeg. The book has 22 essays of Canadian and international writers with warm hearts and penetrating thoughts about contemporary human conditions and its many problematic aspects." …See: http://www.mts.net/~sage2509/d-democracy/ A new improved site is under design with future address at http://home.earthlink.net/~sage2509/pdda/

 

GLOBAL OUTLOOK, a new fascinating periodical has begun to be published. Publisher/editor: "Global Outlook" ™ magazine - editor@globaloutlook.ca

Order Line #: 1-888-713-8500; Office Number: 1-705-726-7300; Editorial Inquiries: Centre

For Research on Globalization, editor@globalresearch.ca 

Articles published in this first issue: The Truth behind September 11; Who is Osama bin Laden?; Democracy under Attack; and many others. Warmly recommended!

 

UK - FRANCE

1 February, information from Mr.Steven Clift: (http://www.publicus.net)

"From the UK government International Benchmarking report on e-democracy in France: http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk/publications/reports/benchmarkingV2/edemo_fra.htm

Also see: http://www.netpolitique.net - and their November newsletter: http://www.netpolitique.net/newsletter_novembre.htm "

7 January: 

"Big interview in the Guardian today: http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,628776,00.html

"Britain will become the first country in the world to use the internet for voting, as part of radical changes to the political system, Robin Cook, the leader of the Commons, has told the Guardian"

18 January, 

information from Dr.Michael Macpherson: Report: direct democracy in Britain http://groups.yahoo.com/group/democracy-europé/files/democracy-prospect-gb.pdf

or: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/democracy-europe > Files > democracy-prospect-gb.pdf

9 January: 

Prospects for more democracy in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, available via http://www.iniref.org/learn.html

 

ARGENTINA

27 January, information from Mr.M.Kolar:

"New at: http://www.mts.net/~kolar/DD/ :
Party of your sons (sons wanting change, sons of the old men ruling Argentina for the past 20 years) - a DD movement. On Jan.25, 2002 in a global manifestation in Argentina, for the first time appeared on TV a banner that said "Democracia Directa Ya!" See: http://www.detushijos.com.ar

BRAZIL

14 February, Information from Mr.Paul Carline:

"Reported in the Guardian of 13.02.02 (in an article about the World Social Forum meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil): ´One of th WSF´s most convincing claims is the new thinking on democracy. Olivio Dutra, the governor of Rio Grande do Sul (the Brazilian province which includes Porto Alegre) summed it up from his own experience: "We are practising a new form of democracy through the direct intervention of citizens in the use of public money. As a result, public machinery is becoming more efficient in meeting social needs and avoiding waste. The people are becoming critically aware of the state budget and are more able to control the state."´

SWEDEN

1st National Conference on People´s Initiative was held 8-9 December 2001 in Kalix

Chair: Mr.Bruno Kaufmann, Initiative & Referendum Institute, Eurotopia

Participants: communal politicians, members of Demokratiinitiativ 01, members of Eurotopia, politologists, one Member of Parliament, one IT expert (Dr.Mikael Nordfors), now and then a few journalists. (http://www.initiativ.nu/sv/vad.html)

Kalix is the first Swedish commune that has let the citizens themselves decide on the level and appropriation of taxes. Regrettably, but not unexpectedly, this potentially very important conference has passed unnoticed by the big media.

 

THE NETHERLANDS

28 February, information from Dr.Michael Macpherson

"As the only country in Europe which has never held a nationwide referendum, the Netherlands got its first nationwide Referendum Law this year. However, the high signature requirements combined with an approval quorum will make it rather difficult to break the spell of no experience in Direct Democracy." Details are supplied by Mr.Arjen Nijeboer, IRI Europé Correspondent, at http://www.iri-europé.org

Important initiatives:

Global Fix - Exchanging ideas on sustainable living and development; http://www.fixgov.com 

Open Directory - Society: Politics: Democracy: Direct Democracy

http://dmoz.org//Society/Politics/Democracy/Direct_Democracy

The Movement of Active Humanists, information at www.acthum.net The webmaster of this site, Mr.Lee Gottlieb, has kindly offered to keep including in it select articles from this Newsletter (in Metamorphose)

If you want to become a "Global Citizen" you are invited to register through www.it-democracy.com

SIMULTANEOUS POLICY

I believe that most or all of us promote DD not for DD's sake but because we believe that the introduction of strong elements of DD into representative systems will increase the vast majority's quality of life, perhaps even save our civilization threatened by the now dominant oligarchic rule. A very similar vision is the idea behind Simultaneous Policy. I am convinced that these two movements can and should cooperate for mutual benefit. I have already adopted simpol and recommend all DD activists and organizations to do the same. Although the advocates of simpol have hitherto only considered selective support to adopters among parties and individuals, Mr.John Bunzl has assured me that his organization (ISPO) is open to DD strategies as well.

Mission Statement: (Draft)

"What are the world problems the Simultaneous Policy seeks to solve? 
(1) Corporate globalization is not compatible with the natural environment nor with the best interest of the majority of people. 
(2) National governments have lost integrity and control because multinational corporate agenda causes them to compete in order to prevent flight of jobs and capital. 
(3) Much needed social, environmental and economic change initiatives are blocked because of 1 & 2. The argument underpinning the Simultaneous Policy SP is a tool enabling voters to support national governments that will end corporate tyranny simultaneously with other countries. What Further Action is now Needed? Thousands of voters to adopt SP and to democratically select the Simultaneous Policies. What is the Simultaneous Policy? SP will be a series of national legislative regulations to deal with problems 1, 2 & 3, legislation that will be implemented simultaneously by many countries in order to nullify corporate retaliation."

International Simultaneous Policy Organization, P.O.Box 26547, London SE3 7YT, UK

Fax: +44(0)20-8460 2035, E-mail: info@simpol.org, website: www.simpol.org

Also: http://www.3-1416.org and http://3-1416.org/Odysweb

WDD INDEX