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WORLDWIDE 
DIRECT DEMOCRACY (WDD)

7 (No. 2) June 2005

When dealing with DD from a theoretical point of view, it is useful to use the concept of paradigm. This word, originating from linguistics, began to be used in the 1960s by Thomas Kuhn to define a coherent belief system, a framework outside of which answers to emerging problems are not sought, or even thought of. As long as the scientific community does not try to transcend the boundaries of the prevalent paradigm, we live in the period of normal science. But at some point of time, researchers begin to notice anomalies, i.e. phenomena which do not fit the paradigm in question. Responding to this awareness, progressive researchers try to find a new paradigm, while the traditionalists stick to the old one. As long as the battle is not decided, we live in a period of revolutionary science. Sooner or later, the progressive individuals carry the day. When this happens, revolutionary science becomes a new normal science. The most spectacular change of paradigm was the transition from Newtonian-Euclidian space and independent time to the Einsteinian space-time continuum and quantum mechanics. The preceding anomalies were e.g. Brown´s movements and especially the impossibility to prove Euclid´s fifth axiom. This development took place in the early twentieth century. In sociology, already in the 1930s, Gaetano Mosca began to use the word political formula - the concept of paradigm avant la lettre.

Using this terminology, we can describe mankind´s political history as having passed through three stages (the third one not yet completed): Rule by birth and religion; Rule by organization and ideology; Rule by citizens.

Rule by birth and religion. This political formula lasted from the dawn of history to the late eighteenth century A.D. It can be summed up as follows: The ruler and his/her descendants stand above ordinary people. Their rule is consecrated by God (or gods). The subjects owe the ruler unlimited obedience. The same applies to the privileged aristocratic elites. The subjects also have to believe in and obey religious authorities. In ancient Greece, this formula was briefly interrupted by the introduction of a limited rule by citizens, and in ancient Rome by a few centuries of rule by organization. The Greek democratic paradigm was subverted from the outside, while the Roman organization-based rule became corrupt and decayed, which meant a return to the rule by birth and religion for almost two thousand years. Anomalies began to be noticed since the late seventeeth century and were defined in the work of John Locke, and later in the writings of French and American political thinkers. The whole eighteenth century was a period of revolutionary science.
(to be continued)

Qutation from prof.Ted Becker´s introductory speech delivered at the First International Conference on Direct Democracy, Pribram, August 1998.

The past seven years have been increasingly confirming the truth of Prof.Becker's words. Each year, new people, groups and organizations promoting DD emerge in most Western countries. In Europe, Switzerland showed the way. Shortly after the fall of communism, in Germany, the strongest now existing DD organization (Mehr Demokratie e.V.) was established. It has paid functionaries, about 2,000 paying members and among its supporters, there are even a few party politicians. Access to the media is not being denied. In accordance with its Swiss model, so far, Mehr Demokratie has mostly focused on I.&R. But at the same time increasing attention is being paid to the deliberative branch of the movement, represented by Prof.Dienel's Planning Cells. There is some cooperation between these two branches, but it should be much more systematic. However, the great democratic potential of deliberative processes seems to be arousing attention. See below under Germany.

Organizations of the I.&R. type exist in Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, even Romania and Bulgaria. In the USA, for several years, the IRI Institute, founded and chaired by Mr.M.Dane Waters, was doing great job, crowned by the publication of the monumental Initiative and Referendum Almanac, a rich source of information on American developments in this area. The deliberative branch is represented by the Citizen Juries organized by the Jefferson Center led by Mr.Ned Crossby. In Australia, Prof.Lyn Carson belongs to this school of thought. In the academic field, the leading personality is Prof.Ted Becker, USA.

But there are also organizations of a different type - those promoting complex alternative models. The most prominent names here are, beside Prof.Becker, Mr.Lee Gottlieb, USA, Sen.Mike Gravel, USA, Mr.George Sagi, Canada, Mr.Miroslav Kolar, Canada, Mr.Bernard Clayson, Mr.D.Taozen, Mr.T.Adeney, UK, Mr.Jaroslav Langer, Germany, Prof.Mohsen Massarrat, Germany, Eng.Jaroslav Kočí, Czech Republic, Ph.D.Milan Valach, Czech Republic, Mr.G.Kokkas, Greece, Ms.Filia den Hollander, Holland, Mr.Leopoldo Salgui and Mr.Juan Carlos Madroñal, Spain, and several others.
Beside those who work on the national level, there are European organizations, especially the IRI Europe, founded and presided by Dr.Bruno Kaufmann, and the NDDIE, created by Mr.Heiko Dittmer and Mr.Tomas Rupp, organizations acting internationally and even globally. And, of course, both national and international discussion channels through which DD people of every description maintain contacts on a daily basis. So far, the big media have mostly ignored this effervescent citizen activity. How long will they be able to remain silent?

INTERNATIONAL

USA
13 March, information from Mr.M.Kolar - submission to http://democracy.mkolar.org/newURL.html, link http://www.revolution2008.org - 2008 Presidential Candidate for Direct Democracy. The candidate, Rick Williams, will work to organize a Constitutional Convention to legalize direct democracy in America and establish a legal route for spreading direct democracy worldwide.
Information from Mr.Lee Gottlieb: "This is a condensed version of a fictional people in a fictional society called "America". Visualized and described in his two books "A Theory of Subversion" and "A Theory of Human Metamorphose". The full version is available on www.voicesfordd.com." Mr.Gottlieb has presented a revised version of his model of NEW GOVERNMENT (see below)
There is an interesting political system in Nebraska - unicameral legislature. See:
http://www.unicam.state.ne.us/learning/history.htm  

19 April, a letter sent by Mr.Doug Johnson to Mr.M.Kolar´s Message Board: "Many American groups involved in e-democracy, direct democracy or ´professional democracy´ will be hooking up in a general configuration that is not itself a ´labeled´ group. Essentially in our direct democracy forums we seek to maintain the impact of each group and individual citizens themselves. It is not useful to try to form a tiny third party, but more practical to draw citizens directly to positions. ..... Can we all link up so that the American Direct Democracy Movement of 2006-2008 will have international support."

"The American Coalition for Direct Democracy emerging in 2006-2008 will not be an actual labeled group, but an association of millions of individuals and hundreds of smaller groups involved in recreating politics and replacing the partial dictatorship that we have with scientific and compassionate government. The power of ideas and solutions themselves must engage citizens at large and draw them outside of their partisan lines. ......."
Doug Johnson, otbdoug@hotmail.com, United States, 2005/4/18
Prof.Ted Becker goes on promoting DD in the USA and globally: www.auburn.edu/jpd
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/liberal_arts/poli_sci/journal_public_deliberation 

CZECH REPUBLIC
16-18 September 2005: An International CICDD Conference will be held in Prague. Location: Hotel Pauliny (see information leaflet). 
Objective: To establish a working Organization and plan a course of action to achieve the following:
    A - officially approve Professor Dienel´s Planning Cells model as the one ALL DD organizations should promote.
    B - resolve which of the DD models (or combination of models) submitted to our newsletter would work best in the real world, in conjunction with these Planning Cells. (Those who have submitted such models are asked to update them.)
    C - develop strategies by which the general public would quickly become aware of the Organization and its objectives.
    D - develop strategies to solicit participation at the individual citizen level.
    E - develop strategies to organize and coordinate activities of the general public.
    F - if possible, initiate the following:
        a - Public Relations Committee
        b - Advertising Committee
        c - Legal Committee
        d - Information Committee
        e - Speaker Committee

Furthermore, discuss the name of the organization (retain WDDM? or rename "The Direct Democracy Organization"?)
Other proposals will be discussed on the spot.
Time table: 16.9. about 17.00 informal meeting at the dining room. We get mutually acquainted and a detailed agenda will be established. End of the conference: 18.9. about noon.
No participation announcement necessary, no participation fee. Everybody pays for him/herself. Room booking can be made directly with the hotel. On request, the organizers can help ( jiri.polak@swipnet.se ).

June: A new political party is about to be established, called Demokracie (Democracy). Purpose: Promotion of DD, especially the proposal of a Citizens´ Constitution, published by the HzPD/MDD. This proposed Constitution Amendment combines the right to I&R on all levels with the introduction of Citizen Commissions, financed from the taxes and operating according to the Planning Cells model. Founders: Petr Czasch, Jan Sinagl, Jiri Polak.

Recently, Ms.M.Chovancova published an article under the heading Invalid Nomination of Judges in the years 1992-2002. The article uncovers systematic miscarriges of justice perpetrated by corrupt politicians and high officials in the legal apparatus.

June: It is now 10 years since the establishment of the HzPD/MDD - a Czech DD organization. The picture shows its "hard core": PhD Milan Valach (spokesperson), Ms Veronika Valachova, and PhD Jiri Polak. We are still going strong and expanding!

SWEDEN: A continuing disintegration of the system
The ruling coalition (Soc.Dem., The Left Wing Party-former Communists, and the Green Party) is being weakened by the emergence of a feminist party (Feminist Initiative). In the feminist movement, there is a fanatic grouping whose chairwoman recently declared on TV, "Men are animals!".
On the right wing, there are 4 parties which are being weakened by a new prospective party - the June List, hostile to the EU and opposing the big, EU friendly parties.
Within the Social Democratic Party - which has ruled Sweden (except 2 short periods) since the thirties, there is a grouping filibustering against their leadership´s refusal to let the citizens vote in referendum on the draft of the EU Constitution. The government´s standpoint is the usual: "Ordinary people are too stupid. This issue must be decided by their qualified representatives in Parliament." Well, a few days ago, two mischievous journalists interviewed 28 MPs asking them a simple question concerning the contents of the Constitution draft. It turned out that only 3 among them were able to answer correctly. The others displayed complete ignorance of the document the are scheduled to vote on. A professor of political science declared in despair: "This is a severe blow to representative democracy!"
On the grassroots level, a new phenomenon is increasedly arousing attention: "blogging": Anybody can start a discussion network within which people are exchanging websites, supply attachments to interesting links and discuss politics without the limitations existing in big media. This is basically what we began doing on the global scale since Prof.Becker created for us the CICDD discussion channel in 1998. Certain commentators believe that blogging is likely to affect the 2006 parliamentary election.

GERMANY
Zeitschrift für direkte Demokratie, Nr.1 and 2, 2005. As usual, the magazine contains many interesting articles, convincing analyses and eloquent statistics. It is a valuable source of information concerning I&R taking place all over the world. But in my perspective, it is too one-sided. It implicitly treats DD as tantamount to I&R. It seems that the publishers (Mehr Demokratie e.V.) have, so far, considered structured citizen deliberation as something apart, useful, but not essential. There are mentions of Planning Cells, but the authors usually say that they proved useful on the local level. A conspicuous exception is the article BürgerParlamente by Raban Fuhrman and Moritz Johannes Brunn, discussing the possibility of combining I&R and PC on all levels, the idea promoted by the Czech draft of a Citizens´ Constitution. In that draft, structured deliberation and I&R are treated as equally important.
I&R alone does not threaten the substance of the existing representative system. Therefore, I&R people are getting subsidies from official sources and some of them even base their careers upon the promotion of this idea. Radical CICDD people, by contrast, get no subsidies, they have to finance everything from their own pockets, and they are boycotted by big media. Their ideas subvert the system by insisting on the inclusion of citizen deliberation (PCs) into the system to treat all issues, including foreign and defence policy, Constitutions, politicians´ wages, etc. and to organize referenda based on recommendations issued by PCs. This is political dynamite.

UK
8 May, a letter by Mr.Bernard Clayson: "Having just done the second Public-run Village Referendum in eight weeks, I am back looking for some more international support i.e. another Catch-22 like the first one.
The first referendum was a District Council political issue, this one is a County Council bureaucratic issue. I have no wish to attack an officer who is doing a good job in difficult circumstances, but a push in the right direction will/may assist him out of a set way of thinking."
http://www.planet-thanet.fsnaet.co.uk/referendum_index.htm 
Mr.B.Claysons activities are a classical example of how to build DD from below. In many types of environment, this is the most efficient, or even the only way. JP

THE NETHERLANDS
Ms Filia den Hollander , a Dutch visual artist and democracy activist, together with Ms Jeanne van Heeswijk, an internationally known artist, are lauching the idea of a Blue House, a cultural and democratic center, not only for its neighbourhood, but also for the whole city of Amsterdam, and in fact even for those members of the global democratic community who visit this beautiful town and want to meet people with whom they share beliefs and values. For information you may contact Ms Filia den Hollander < fkdh@xs4all.nl >

SPAIN
23 April, a letter sent by Mr.Leopoldo Salgui to various discussion channels:
"Dear friends, the Spanish version of a comprehensive report (over 70 pages) on the propaganda during the Spanish plebiscite held on 20th February has just been published. The most updated version can be downloaded from
http://www.demopunk.net/sp/intern/europe/pcon_index_sp.html#INFO20F  
We are working hard on an English translation. The most updated version can be downloaded from http://www.demopunk.net/en/intern/europe/pcon_index_en.html#INFO20F 
This report could be extremely useful for European democracy activism because it explains how the European institutions and the European Movement International does campaigning in Spain, using procedures which could also be used in other countries.
For fast reading, there is a small chapter with the milestones of the Spanish plebiscite, which can also be read in the English-spoken forum debating the so-called European Constitution.
http://64.62.195.58/wddf/viewtopic.php?p=87#87 
Please, draw your contacts´ attention to the report and the forum."

INDIA
22 April, Mr.Milap Choraria sent a letter to the International-Democracy discussion channel informing us of his efforts to democratize the Indian political system. He refers to A Model of New Constitution for India.
http://milapchoraria.tripod.com/msp
"Contact me: milap_choraria@yahoo.com "

JAPAN
11 April, a letter sent to Mr.M.Kolar´s Meeting Place: "We established The Institute for Advanced Policy Studies (Non-Profit Organization) in the last month. So, our Home Page is under construction, but we have got an address (www.ifaps.org). Maybe, it will be open in June. Our institution is approved by National Government in Japan. If you can read Japanese, please access http://www.npo-homepage.go.jp/ in National Government Home Page. The mission of our Institute is the improvement of public policies. We think that Direct Democracy is a means in order to improve our public space in every day life.
Is it possible for you to keep contact with us? If possible, please do."
Bye-bye, Taishi Gomi < taishi-gomi@ma.neweb.ne.jp >"
LINK: http://www.ifaps.org  - Institute for Advanced Policy studies

EUROPE
EUROPA-MAGAZIN 1/2005
Articles:
Europa hat besseres verdient by Thomas Rupp
Europa - ein Raum der Freiheit, der Sicherheit und des Rechts? by Andreas Wehr
Die Lissabon-Strategie: die doppelte Revolution by Annette Groth
Buchbesprechungen:
Le rôle de la subsidiarité dans le projet de constitution européenne by Andreas Wehr
Offene Grenzen - aber nur für ausgewählte by Danielle Jenni
Schengen/Dublin - Wege zum Euro-Schnüffelstaat by Paul Rupen
Address: http://www.europa-magazin.ch 

The Netherlands
The organizer of the formulation of a Citizens´ Constitution for the EU is Ms Filia den Hollander, a Dutch visual artist and democracy activist. The team of her collaborators consists, among others, of the following persons: Jan Willen Sap, a Dutch lawyer who teaches International Law at the Free University of Amsterdam. (He wants to remain in the background.); Ken Kostyo, an American lawyer living in Amsterdam, expert on sub-national constitutional law; Jiri Polak, politologist, publisher of this Newsletter; Gisela Stuart, a Labour MP, former member of the Presidium of the Convention on the Future of Europe.

On 12 April, Ms Filia den Hollander sent the following Appeal to several international discussion channels:
APPEAL
EVERYONE´S A CITIZEN BABY A People´s EU Constitution
"I would like to see people look carefully at the kind of Europe they want and put a constitutional framework in place that will achieve it."
Gisela Stuart, Birmingham Post, 7 October 2004
"Mission Statement
Produce within 5 weeks a first version of a People´s EU Constitution. Publish this in one Dutch daily newspaper and one weekly newspaper as well as in one French daily newspaper and one weekly at around May 20th. The aim is to offer the people an alternative to the EU Constitution on which France and The Netherlands will hold their national referendums. ... It needn´t be a perfect document yet, but it should make it clear that an EU Constitution is possible which: A) has (improvement of) democracy as its core point, B) is a real Constitution in which, consequently, streamlining of provisions from former EU Treaties does not belong, C) is written in a language which is clear and accessible to everyone.
Requested
1) People who are willing to write (and translate) this first version in English, French, and Dutch and who are committed to publishing it at around May 20th. I am looking for lawyers who are willing to take the direct democracy principles (i.e. that conclusive sovereignty is with the people, not with the representation of the people) as the basis of this text. I already have a first draft of an alternative EU Constitution; this draf needs further development.
2) Lawyers who are willing to lend their names to the constitutional document of EVERYONE´S A CITIZEN BABY.
3) In a longer term, we are also looking for people who are willing to participate as mediators. After publication, A People´s EU Constitution, along with a questionnaire and a computer game (still in the development phase), will be presented to people inside and outside the EU. .....
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
EVERYONE´S A CITIZEN BABY is a project in which artists, lawyers, people of the (direct) democracy movement and ordinary citizens develop an alternative EU Constitution. .... The rewriting of the EU Constitution is conceived as a tool to design an experimental society within the geographical location known as Europe. A Constitution can only be supported if it is also developed together with the citizens, and if we investigate how they see their, and we our, citizenship.
These questions stretch out beyond the EU, for they are relevant and instructive for all nations of the world. ...."
Immediately, two citizens sent comments to this text: Mr.Fred Six, 22.April, and Mr.Albano Cordeiro, 23. April.

On 26 April, Ms Filia den Hollander sent round a new text developing the basic idea:
"Preamble to the Preamble
An EU Constitution should have 3 qualities:
1) It should be democratic. This means that the people are the sovereign. The more hierarchic layers in which the people are represented (representation of the representation), the less the people are sovereign.
2) It should be a clear constitution, not a combination of a constitution and streamlining of former treaties. This is to have a clear understanding of its contents (of which regulations are deduced) and to avoid to a maximum the creation of jurisprudence by law. After all, we are the people, not the law.
3) It should be understandable and at the service of the people.
An EU Constitution should also take globalization into account. This means that it should be conceivable that a country which does not belong to what formerly was called "Europe", can become member of the EU."
For the whole text, see www.blauwehuis.org/everyonesacitizenbaby

On 8 June, Ms Filia den Hollander wrote, "What some call a ´crisis of the EU´, caused by the double rejection by the French and the Dutch citizens, is in fact a moral victory which we should not underestimate. This victory, called Democracy, is based on the recognition - at last - of the political maturity of EU´s citizens. That is - if the genuine leaders of the EU continue to trust us in our political maturity and if they are self-confident enough to become "following leaders", i.e. start a genuine dialogue with the citizens on what course to follow from here on."

On 10 June, Ms Filia den Hollander sent round a comment on the result of the 2 referendums: The Constructive No (for the text, see the above web-site)

FRANCE
19 May, a letter sent by Mr.Yvan Bachaud, Vice-president of the Movement for Citizen Initiative (MIC): "Estimating that in case of success of NO, the new European Constitution should be elaborated directly by European citizens, the Movement for Citizen Initiative will launch the idea of a "Constituent Assembly of European Citizens" (CCE) originating from a group of "Constituent National Assemblies of Citizens" (CCN) consisting of citizens selected at random by lot from the respective electoral rolls.
The MIC proposes to establish a preliminary status, to be finalized and subjected to binding vote as soon as the process of random selection of the CCN is completed.
The MIC hopes that the article 1 of the proposed European Citizen Constitution will foresee the ratification of the text by referendum in all countries during the same week.
The CCE will have time until 2009 - the term announced by the Treaty of Nice - to present its proposal.
At first, for France, we foresee a "Constituent Assembly of French Citizens" consisting of about 300 members. To assure that this group is really representative as to territory, lots will be drawn separately in each department and in proportion to the number of registered voters.
The MIC has defined in writing the procedure of drawing lots, the same for all departments. Each citizen can verify the correctness of the selected sample by checking it up with the respective telephone directory.
Thus, e.g. the Department of the Rhone, having almost one million voters out of the 40 millions, will be entitled to present 7 members on 300.
It is fascinating to have, as working hypothesis, the assumption that one person out of ten selected by lot, would actually agree to be member of "The Rhone Section" of the Constituent Assembly of French Citizens. This would give us a first batch of 70 names. The procedure could be pursued farther if necessary. The list of the 70 concerns 42 municipalities, and 24 persons are from Lyon.
In case of a success of NO, on or after May 30, the MIC will organize a press conference in Lyon, announcing the drawing of lots with the objective of selecting the 70 to be part of 7 members representing The Rhone Section.
TO VOTE NO is the first step towards the elaboration of a Constitution for a democratic Europe serving the citizens.
E-mail: y.bachaud@mic-fr.org  Site: www.mic-fr.org

MIC: Proposition pour la Constitution européenne (excerpts)

De la souveraineté européenne
I: AperV u de la situation en France.
I.1 Quelques textes franV ais importants.
I.1.1. La Déclaration des droits de l´Homme et du citoyen de 26.08.1789, Article 6:
"La loi est l´expression de la volonté générale. Tous les citoyens ont le droit de concourir personnellement ou par leur représentants à sa formation. Elle doit être la même pour tous soit qu´elle protège soit qu´elle punisse. ..... "
I.1.2. La Constitution franV aise en vigueur. Article 3:
"La souverainté nationale appartient au peuple qui l´exerce par ses représentants et par la voie du référendum; Aucune section du peuple ni aucun individu ne peut s´en attribuer l´exercice. ..... "
I.2 Position de deux Professeurs de Droit constitutionnel.
(Both Prof.Carré de Malmberg et Prof Michèle Guillaume-Hofnung support the idea of a People´s Constitution.) ........................

I.4 Extraits du Projet de Constitution européenne préparé avec Alain JUPPE, Jacques TOUBON et Hervé GAYMARD. (Rendu public le 21.06.2000)
The text of these excerpts covers about 3 pages and shows that much valuable work has already been done on this epoch-making project. (JP)

LUXEMBOURG
24 February, a lettre from Mr.Alfred Groff, www.demokratie.lu
"Hello from Luxembourg, since we are working with friends in Germany, Austria, France e.o. also on guidelines for an Alternative EU Constitution
( http://www.willensbekundung.net/Projekte/EuropaEU21/index/index.html ), an exchange of ideas might be helpful.
Greetings Alfred Groff"

THE WORLD
On the transnational scene, there has been a fervent activity of emerging initiatives, discussion channels, organizations, and cooperation proposals. The selection presented below is by no means complete. It is possible that some of the most relevant ideas are missing. Such a selection cannot but be subjective.

1 March, information supplied by Ph.D.Milan Valach, "There already is a voting system for election of politicians, even if, so far, only as a game: http://www.leadersofthefreeworld.com
For the election of the "President of the Planet" see http://www.leadersoftefreeworld.com/eng/matcher.html

7 March, information from Mr.Miroslav Kolar, "On the WDDM new site ( www.world-wide-democracy.net ) two proposals for the Action Plan for WDDM renewal were posted. Everybody is invited to comment on them.

26 March, an information by Mr.Paul Hilder about Open Democracy. "The traditional political party is dying." http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-3-122-2312.jsp

16 April, a letter by Mr.Leopoldo Salgui, "after looking through the present WDDM workshops http://www.world-wide-democracy.net/Wiki/WddmProjects , I would like to propose to create a new WDDM workshop: Democracy Monitoring. ....
From Demopunk Net we could contribute with at least three reports:
DD in Spain: http://www.demopunk.net/en/direct/ddsp2002_en.html
DD in Latin America (edited by the emerging Spanish group, +Democracia)
http://www.demopunk.net/en/intern/LatinAmericaDD.rtf
The European Constituent Process
http://www.demopunk.net/en/intern/europe/pcon_index_en.html
Please, feedback your positions ... Leo"

22 April, a letter from Mr.Miroslav Kolar (excerpt): "The Associated Membership would actually also include Filia´s suggestion about conditional membership. I have also put together all the proposals on COR so far received. They are at
http://www.world-wide-democracy.net/Wiki/ProposedRulesSummary
Anybody can add comments on this page, even without Wiki registration. Please, move your further discussion there."

24 April, a letter from Mr.Leopoldo Salgui, "Dear friends, the Worldwide Direct Democracy Forum has just been upgraded. Now it is possible to add attachments to the posts.
http://64.62.195.58/wddf/

23 April, a letter from Mr.Miroslav Kolar, "Every member should once a day open Wiki, and click in the top menu on RecentChanges and RecentlyCommented.
It can also be achieved by adding these two links to their Bookmarks/Favorites:
http://www.world-wide-democracy.net/Wiki/RecentChanges
http://www.world-wide-democracy.net/Wiki/RecentlyCommented

24 April, a letter from Mr.Miroslav Kolar, "I’ve finished the last addition: WikkaForum integrated into our Wiki: http://www.world-wide-democracy.net/Wiki/WDDMWikkaForum  ..... links listing all threads that go back to the main forum page do work well, and their examples can be seen at http://www.world-wide-democracy.net/Wiki/sandBox  and http://www.world-wide-democracy.net/Wiki/SuggestionBox  ........"

25 April, information from Mr.Miroslav Kolar:
"New submission to http://democracy.mkolar.org/newURL.html 
LINK: http://www.localnet.com/~mjkbmk/essays.html - I, philosophy and politics (DD)
Miles Kuhn, mjkbmk@localnet.com  US, 2005/4/24

25 April, Open Democracy Weekly Newsletter can be downloaded at http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-3-128-2415.jsp

7 May, information from Mr.Didier Coeumelle, " I see 3 sites that can interest you
- The site of the coalition for a world parliament and global democracy: http://www.world.democracy.org
- The wiki for World Citizenshio, Global Justice and World Democracy: http://ascop.editme.com
- The site of the World Citizens: http://www.recim.org

12 May, information from Democracy International: NEWSLETTER #4 http://www.democracy-international.org

SIMPOL

It´s Simpol - The Simultaneous Policy News, Spring 2005
PO Box 26547, London, SE3 7YT, UK / www.simpol.org Edited by Brian Wills

Reform of our unsustainable monetary system is now achievable through informed action by voters
Report on Simpol-UK´s Policy Forum held in the House of Commons, London, on 2 March
Holding corporations accountable
Mike Brady reports on local group policy fora and the SP policy development process
UK general election
A list for voters´ attention: politicians who have signed the SP pledge
Campaigning: personal experience at the grass roots
Jill Phillips tells us how SP events evolved when she went to live in Italy
Barnaby Flynn shows how setting up a stall among shoppers can attract willing Adopters
Campaigning updates: national and local group events
Susan Crosio describes the establishment of the new SP group based in southern Italy
Adopters´ Group activities in the UK
News Briefs
§ International Open Space meeting held in London
§ Joe Fleury offers SP a Mail-Art project
§ Dr Desmond Berghofer joins ISPO´s Advisory Board
§ SP in the blogosphere, with invitations from Chris Macrae