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WORLDWIDE Vol. 8 (No. 1) March 2006 DD - a Historic Necessity (conclusion)by Jiri Polak In the previous issue, I pointed out that all fixed organizations become corrupt and develop crypto-feudal oligarchic rule. This is one of the reasons why political parties´ power monopoly is not and never can be true democracy. But all political systems, including those based on (semi)direct democracy, i.e. rule by citizens, obviously do need some sort of organization. Without organization, any system would fall into chaos. So how to solve this problem? The key lies in the word fixed. Not every organization has to be fixed, i.e. rigid and insusceptible of change. Some organizations can be flexible, i.e. they can be constructed so as to prevent - as far as possible - the emergence of fixed oligarchic structures. A safety-valve could be a limitation of the tenure of office. Apart from Switzerland, in western systems, the only such limitation is applied to the office of the President of certain states. An MP or Prime Minister can sit as long as he/she keeps winning elections. Limitations could be introduced even here. Another reform will be a transformation of the substance of the function of political representatives, from that of "councellor" or "ombudsman" to that of "messenger", voting according to the voters´ instructions. And, of course, the introduction into the system of the right to I&R on all levels, according to the Swiss model. However, outside Switzerland, a country having a very specific political culture, the right to I&R alone is not sufficient to assure a truly democratic functioning of the system. Equally important are structured opportunities for citizen deliberation. Such opportunities exist already and are amply used in some (rather marginal) contexts. The most important and, at least in Europe, practically usable deliberative model has been developed by Prof. Dienel in the form of the Planning Cell (PC). So far, this model has only been used for the treatment of "innocuous" local issues, such as city planning. However, the PCs could be used for the assessment of any type of issues, including international and defence policy. Under the name of citizen commissions, they are formally included in the draft of the Czech Citizens´ Constitution and amply discussed among Czech DD activists. A system consisting of a set of the above mentioned elements will be self-regulating, all the time adaptable to progressing social change. Such a system can only be forced upon the elites from below. If the citizens remain passive and unimaginative, they are courting disaster. POLAND: A NEW REVOLUTION ? The whole world admires the magnificent historic novels written by Henryk Sienkiewicz - By Fire and Sword, The Flood, Mr.Wolodyowski, The Crusaders .... The underlying theme of all these works is revolt - revolt against oppression. The same indomitable spirit resounds in Frederyk Chopin´s Revolutionary Etude, known to all music lovers. In 1939, the Polish army did not hesitate to wage, on horseback, a hopeless war against Nazi tanks. In 1980, the Polish Solidarity movement - the Free Unions rejecting the communist dictate - started a process of emancipation which, nine years later, resulted in the collapse of communist dictatorships in the whole Central and Eastern Europe except Yugoslavia. Sixteen years later, in 1996, thanks to a proposal presented by Prof.Jerzy Przystawa, a new revolutionary movement was founded in a Polish town. This movement opposes the system of proportional representation foisted by the Polish party-political establishment upon Polish voters. In the early December of 2005, members of the Czech MDD, holding a meeting at the Pauliny hotel in Prague, were honored by the visit of Prof.Przystawa and one of his collaborators. We received some very impressive materials published by the Polish movement. Prof.Przystawa made a speech revealing for us grassroot activities fermenting in our neighbour country, and fomented by the same resentment as that observable in the whole contemporary world. The history of the Polish movement, from 1996 to 2004, is told in the book WOJOWNICY (see the picture). This word means WARRIORS. The letters JOW in the middle are an abbreviation of Single Mandate Election Districts. In the proportional representation system, representatives are selected for the voters by political parties. In the JOW system it will be the citizens themselves who will be able to choose their own representatives. This is the same principle as that expressed in the draft of the Czech Citizens´ Constitution. In the years 1996 to 2004, 46 JOW conferences were held in most big cities, including Warsaw. Krakow, Wroclaw, Szczecin, Gdansk, Poznan, and others. The movement has organized several "marches on Warsaw" and gathered about one million signatures in support of their demands. The petition was thrown into a paper basket by the Parliament. Evidently, the people´s protests can only be ignored up to a point. What then? INTERNATIONAL USA 31 December, info from Mr. M.Kolar: LINK: http://3rdParty.org - The Third Party http://www.politicexchange.org/politicwiki/index.php?title=Collaboration_Political_Platform This web is an experiment in which anyone may participate in writing a political party platform. 5 January, info from Mr.M.Kolar: A new version of the D2 Discussion Zone was made available today. A place to discuss practical DD efforts: http://d2dz.stevemagruder.com 7 January, a letter sent from http://www.ddtv.org/ (Direct Democracy TV) Quote: "Today we have to realize that those who govern us receive huge sums of money from corporations and special interest groups; this raises the question as to who they are governing for, the corporations or us." "In December of 1999, America became aware of an organization called The World Trade Organization. This group of people who were never elected to public office, has the power to cancel laws that they feel not in their best interest while not considering the best interests of the population as a whole." 16 January, info from Mr.M.Kolar: http://www.direct-deliberative-e-democracy The site is devoted to the promotion of two new books on
Direct Democracy, written by Mr.Majid Behrouzi: 2 February: Triaka wrote, "Aloha! The dictionary defines DICTATORSHIP as ´absolute power of control´. Make no mistake! Anybody who unbiasedly observes the federal government in Washington D.C. today knows that the Office of President is a DICTATORSHIP. Documentation is everywhere. A Constitution proclaimed to be "of, by, and for the people" and that makes possible a DICTATORSHIP is not worth the paper it's written on. Humanity can, and will do better!" 4 February, an information sent by Mr. Dennis
Polhill to the CICDD discussion channel: Mr. Polhill, Founder, Initiative & Referendum Institute promotes a campaign for The Petition Rights Amendment. Some of the participants of the campaign are: Norma Anderson, former Senate Majority Leader (R), Kay Atkinson, Republican Political Consultant, and others. 20 December, from a letter sent by Mr.Bruce Eggum: "Dear CICDD, I received this re proportional representation and note the problem of "parties". It would seem to me that adopting a Unicameral system would solve the party problem. Of course the people would then have to vote in a leader of Parliament, which too would be an improvement. If Canada also adopted Direct Democracy I&R (TRG) the people would have full control, and their votes would count. Information on the Unicameral is available at the www.trg-polity.org website." "Direct Democracy League is a nonpartisan coalition, advocating constitutional renewal at state and national levels to give us TRG - true republican governance. Not mob-rule, it is a balanced governance of I&R´s citizen lawmaking combined with representative govt. TRG relies on the People to make decisions using State-level OCI´s (online citizen institutions). OCT will be transparent organizing institutions, not control devices. TRG has been legally recognized as a republican form of government intrinsic to the Constitution." SWITZERLAND 19 December, info from Mr.M.Kolar: The history of the Swiss DD system is presented at http://www.world-wide-democracy.net/SwissDD/ 4 February, info from Mr.Ronald Holland: "Can Swiss style direct democracy solve some of America´s growing political and government problems at home as well as in other nations around the world?" See http://www.ronaldholland.com/swissdirectdemocracy.htm EUROPA-MAGAZIN 2/2005 Editorial by Mr.Paul Ruppen. Quote: "Die Idee von der EU-Integration als Reregulierungsinstrument erweist sich ... als pure Ideologie: sie soll die Deregulierung durch angebliche künftige Regulierung verdaulich machen." ...... Articles: Herbert Schui: Aufhebung der sozialen Verpflichtung
des Eigentums GERMANY Re-edition of Prof.Peter C.Dienel´s now classical book Die Befreiung der Politik October 2005; 184 pages, 19,90 euro; Westdeutsher Verlag; www.vs-verlag.de The book describes the deliberative procedure called Planungszelle, successfully applied on dozens of issues both in Germany and many other countries. Its use has been recommended by some of Europe´s leading politicians. Contributions to this re-edition have been written, among others, by Johannes Rau, Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Eberhard Sinner, Peter Dienel and Silvana Koch-Mehrin. Mr.Ronald Pabst´s Newsletters, appearing on http://www.democracy-international.org CZECH REPUBLIC PhD. Milan Valach, the spokesperson of the Czech MDD, has published a new book (in Czech) called Marx´s Philosophy of History. It is an unconventional assessment of Marxism. In the belief system of most people, Marxism is associated with communist dictatorships and, on the theoretical level, with the doctrine of Lenin, considered as belonging to the left wing ideology. Dr.Valach challenges this assumption and shows that, in fact, Lenin disfigured Marx´s thought, thus laying the foundations of what followed after November 1917. Therefore, Leninism, contrary to current assumptions, should be considered as belonging to the right wing political tradition. GREAT BRITAIN 16 December, info from Mr. Miroslav Kolar: New submission to http://democracy.mkolar.org/newURL.html LINK: http://www.iniref.org/learn.html - Democracy and Constitution/Fundamental/New paper Announcement TITLE Regards M Macpherson LATIN AMERICA Those able to read Spanish can find interesting information
at www.sinpermiso.info. The USA has ever since considered the Western
hemisphere as its exclusive sphere of interest. The trend observable lately in
this area is unmistakeably a growing reluctance to blindly follow instructions
coming from Washington. This is particularly conspicuous in Venezuela.
Mr.M.Kolar has drawn our attention to an information channel focusing on this
country: SINGAPORE Mr.Erik Lim is one of the (so far very rare) proponents of democratic reforms in Asia. He calls his idea True Democracy Community. See http://www.tdcommunity.org SIBERIA On 20. - 22. January 2006, the Novosibirsk School of Civil Society (NSCS) held a seminar called Public participation in local governance in Russia, with the aim of testing the Planning Cell model in that part of the world. The project was organized in co-operation with the department Forschungsstelle Bürgerbeteiligung of the Bergische Universität Wuppertal and with personal participation of Prof.Peter C.Dienel. Basic Aspects "The concept of ´Revolution´ is no solution to the catastrophes (ecology, conflicts between the rich and the poor, energy, famine, etc.) looming large as unavoidable in front of contemporary society. Recently, in Paris, thousands of cars were burning. Uprising, however, is not the right way to go. Today, fights over distribution of wealth must be avoided. The weaponry that can be used by the rebels is too effective. Instead, it is conflict resolution that should be sought, to strengthen human understanding. From time immemorial, this approach has proved its capability to achieve progress. The Man is a thinking animal! His potential should not only be applied in the field of " market". When recognizing sheer necessity, he should also use it for making collectively binding decisions and for setting up the necessary instruments of implementation (the State). There is a concept expressing this. Since Antiquity, it has been called Democracy, "rule by the people". But - facing threatening developments - this concept works with decreasing efficiency. Within a discernible framework, it is operative. People are discussing and voting. But evidently, this concept has quantitative limits. In ancient Athens, these limits were exhausted. For making specific decisions, 6.000 able-bodied men gathered at the Agora to vote. At present, evidently, more and more decisions concern vast areas of impact and affect much more people. In such circumstances, not everybody can participate in discussions. Decision-making competence is moving upwards. Whether traffic should keep to the right or to the left cannot be decided separately in every village. Decision has to be made by those "at the top". People's reaction As everybody knows, this situation is unsatisfactory. Many people grumble, others react by apathy, especially the young. Available opportunities of participation on a higher level, such as elections or ballot, are not made use of by all those qualified, and often only by a minority. By contrast, civil participation by compulsion isolates the decision-makers. In spite of the impressive institutional structure of the State they have built for themselves, they stand there alone. On the other hand, attempts at answering the increasing demands for participation in politics by offering various attractive labels doesn´t solve the problem. Such offers are being adopted - citizen workshops, dialogue, consensus conferences, citizen economics, jury, plebiscite etc. - but they all suffer from serious defficiencies. ..... In view of this situation, in the long run, it is very important to understand that there might be a combination of opportunities enabling every adult to meaningfully participate in political decision-making, while giving him/her a realisic chance of achieving results. The supply of such opportunities will then enable everybody to really play his/her role as a citizen on a massive scale, while sticking to a radically fixed time-table. .... " (Follows a description of the PC procedure and its effects.) "It was a coincidence that this Innovation for Russia was first presented in Siberia, at a NSCS seminar, under the participation of 15 young communal politicians active in Russian towns, as well as collaborators of the Academy. Already in 2004, the PC procedure was mentioned during a lecture given in Novosibirsk by Dr.S.Lang, Öffentlicher Sektor und Zivilgesellschaft in Deutschland. " .... EUROPE 13 November, info from Mrs.Filia den Hollander, co-ordinator of the People's Constitution for the EU project: "Please add suggestions at the bulletin board. *EVERYONE´S A CITIZEN BABY* 28 November, info from Mr.Arjen Kamphuis:
Our site is now viewable at: 7 December, info from Mrs.Filia den Hollander: "We won the shared first prize in what was called during the Newropeans Ceremony: ´The most important category: Political Action´. And basically - I´m quite proud of this - we did so on almost solely our ´Open Letter to Gisela Stuart´ (also in the files-section) for that was all the people who put us on the Newropeans list of nominees, and then the approx. 350 people who voted for us, knew about us!" 14 Januay, info from Mr.Leopoldo Salgui: The most recent activity of the forums at European Constituent Process has been: Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe Rescue plan for the TCE: http://europeanconstituentprocess.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=34 THE WORLD A synoptic information about the concept of Direct Democracy can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_democracy (incomplete and biased) 13 November, info from Mr.Didier Coeurnelle: There is a new book about World Demo-cracy: Developing International Democracy, For a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations. A strategy Paper of the Committee for a Democratic U.N., Andreas Brummel, 2005, Horizonte.See http://www.uno-komitee.de Also: http://universal-democracy.editme.com/books 13 November, from a letter sent round by Dr.Doug Everingham: "... I think it may help combine our voices if all groups who seek willing commitment of most of humanity to a fairer and more foresightful world community just acknowledge that we welcome proto-citizenship - involvement of more and more people in constituting a transparent and accountable world order based on rights and responsibilities." .... This term is based on the proposal made by Mr.Richard Mochelle: ...."The proposal is that we refer to ourselves not as world citizens but as world protocitizens. (proto = original, first). Protocitizenship is a role/responsibility prior to citizenship, prior to the constitution that defines what a citizen is. Protocitizens are the constitution makers. ...." 25 November, information sent to "International networks and CSOs working for Global Sustainability, World Democracy and World Peace": Invitation to join Global Partnership for World Democracy and Breakthrough 2007 team www.gpwd.org ......... 8 January, info from Mr.Didier Coeurnelle: Online Campaigns for World Democracy A selection: * A personal declaration of intent to create a well-governed
world. One World Democracy. * Constitution for the federation of the Earth: * Open Letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan to convene a High Level Panel to determine the steps required for the establishment of a Peoples´ Parliamentary Assembly within the United Nations Organization: http://www.empowertheun.org/openletter.html * Do you support the creation of a directly-elected, representative and democratic world government? (goal 100.000) http://www.voteworldgovernment.org and http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/458184591?1t1=1131581960 ........... and many other sites to the same effect ......... 9 February, info from Mr.Miroslav Kolar: Announcement: Direct Democracy Portal, mixing open source with politics to create a portal for online organisations governed through direct democracy. Always appreciate any feedback. http://edemocrazy.sourceforge.net 10 February, info received through Mr.Miroslav Kolar: "Via a member of an e-mail list an info has reached me about an intended/proposed International Day of Direct Democracy - first one should be celebrated on November 11, 2006. The people preparing this yearly event are also involved in the CHance21, a small (political) group. See their website (alas in German only) http://chance21.ch for contact." Vladimir Rott, d-europe@vjrott.com Switzerland/Czechia, 2006/2/10 Information received on 18 February: 20 February, info from Dr.Milan Valach: A new international discussion group about Direct Democracy: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/top-politics/ SIMPOL - a voice of reason in a crazy world 20 November, info from Mr.Brian Wills: The Autumn issue of It´s Simpol! can be down-loaded from www.simpol.org.uk/campaign_newsletters.php 26 January, info from Mr.Mike Brady: "As the acting coordinator of Simpol-Brazil I am very pleased to report that we have received our first Simultaneous Policy pledge from a candidate in forthcoming elections. George VBA is standing in the State of Ceará as a State Deputy for the new party PEBA (Politicas Eco-sociais Brasileiras de Atitudes), which is intending to support SP as official policy. Elections take place in November, so let us hope there is much more support for SP in Brazil by then and it enters the various state and federal seats of power." 26 January, info from Mr.John Bunzl: "An interesting article in the London Financial Times (26.1.06) Merkel calls for rules on global scale - by Bertrand Benoit and John Thornhill "Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said yesterday the international community would face ´grave social disorder´ if it failed to agree on global framework of rules to govern competition between old industrial and fast-developing economies. ...... We need international rules to frame global competition, she said." 28 January, quotation from a letter sent by Mr.Leah Khaghani to the Simpol discussion channel: ...... "I really feel that it is quite likely that there will be quite a bit of excitement about Simpol in the U.S. once the word gets out to a broader audience. As you probably know, the U.S. has quite a dynamic environmental, social and economic justice movement. Don´t let the election of George Bush fool you, there is a large and strong group of folks who are committed to the issues that Simpol is working to effectuate. ......... 2 February, info from Mr.John Bunzl:
"This is to let you know that the pdf version of the latest issue of our
newsletter, It´s Simpol!, has been uploaded onto our global and UK websites,
with the Editorial and Contents shown below. Please go to For those who require it, a Word version is in preparation and will be available shortly on the global website. |
