how should the world be run?
I think it would be fun to suggest ways to improve government, so i am making this thread.
Feel free to suggest policy that you think should be implemented that is currently not (in your country).
If good ideas are suggested I will try and make them known at my local political party meetings
(in my party local branches have the ability to send policy ideas to be debated at its conference (where they decide on policy)).
This will most likely not change the world but it might be fun anyway.
Proportional representation should be adopted to give each person an equal vote and to ensure that a wide spectrum of party’s can exist,
under the first past the post system that some countries (including mine) use 2 party’s almost always dominate.
often your only option is to vote for the party you dislike the least,
as often you are unable to find one that both reflects your views and is one of the 2 party’s with a decent chance of gaining power.
a PR system such as the single transferable vote enables all party’s to have an equal chance of gaining power and ensures all votes are equal (although this may not be the case if a constituency system remains, but it would still be much better).
more than 2 party’s are required for a wide spectrum of ideas to be represented.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_electoral_systems_by_country
I was under the impression that the home of democracy and all that jazz USA had more than two parties, but all the other parties are fringe parties that nobody votes for. There is rumoured to be a Communist Party, too.
What prevents you from voting for these other parties? Common decency, peer pressure or taking the victors' side?
"What prevents you from voting for these other parties?"
there may be more than two party’s but if the party you vote for has almost no chance of winning the seat, then you are increasing the chance of the dominant party that least reflects your views winning.
so unless you can be sure that a huge amount of people will change their minds in the next election, the optimal strategy is to vote the your favourite dominant party (under FPTP).
1 – The acknowledgment of the people’s impotency
Political power serves the interest of an ultra-rich minority against the greater good / common interest(cf. the links found under concerning the central issue of monetary creation left to private banks).To use the power given by the people against the greater good is an abuse of power.A democratic regime should above all protect the people agains abuse of power
The Constitution does not organise a signle counter-power, the people are left unprotected and the situation can only become worse.Our current regime is in theory the protector of people, however the people are clearly no longer protected. How is it possible to have reached such a situation in a democracy?
2 – Are France and other countries around the world democracies?
In a democracy, the people are sovereign and govern with the greater good as a goal.The constitution of the 5th Republic (in France) and elsewhere transfers power from the people to elected representatives.The greater good is not defended by the elected representatives (see the next chapter).The constitution plans no legal method for their people to challenge the actions of their elected representatives
We must therefore logically give up using the word “democracy”to describe the French regime and other “democratic” regimes around the world.
The 5th Republic and other “democratic” regimes around the world are not technically democracies, it is a fact: the people do not practice power nor have the means of using counter-powers. But the Republic leaves one large lever in the hands of the people: the election of its representatives.Yet the election doesn’t change anything (see chapiter 1) and every citizen deeply feels his political impotency. Why this paradox? Isn’t election equal to democracy?
3 – Election is not synonym of democracy
An election essentially leaves the choice between candidates already preselected by political parties.An electoral campaign is quite expensive, to be elected costs a lot, the support of money powers cannot be avoided and is necessary.Therefore, members of a political cast obtain powers without any counter-power, form an oligarchy and are thankful (and in debt) for their election towards money powers that backed them.True democracy does not use election but the random draw/sortition to pick its representatives.
Also, true democracy gave limited powers to its representatives for a short mandate/term.And as final point, true democracy organises counter-powers efficient enough to balance out the powers given to the representative.By setting up such institutions in general (in particular the random draw / sortition), the Athenians achieved true democracy for over 200 years and consequently the poor always remained in power and the rich never took over. This did not prevent the Athenian society from flourishing (and setting a historical precedent).
The election process has been used in France for 200 years (and similarly elsewhere) and has always mechanically led to the opposite result: power always left in the hands of the 1% and never in those of the 99%. Each day, we suffer the dire consequences of such politics (see Chapter 1).
It was never meant to be a democratic tool and yet, we vow an almost religious cult towards election. The random draw / sortition must be rediscovered.
Citizen did not get up and suddenly decide to elect representatives. The principle of electing our chiefs (who should in fact be our servants) is written in our constitution, the supreme law of our country. Do you know who wrote the constitution?
4 – Our constitution at the core of the problem
The constitution must establish the limits of power, to protect the common interest and the greater good.Our constitution has been written by people who were elected and by people who were in power.There is a conflict of interest: the one who is in power must never determine the limits of his own power.Every person which will come into an office of power must not participate in the writting process of the constitution
The constitution must therefore be written by the people and then voted in by the people.People in power should not write the limits of their own power.For the people to be able to write a constitution, it will have to entrust this task to a Constitutional Assembly. To designate the members of this assembly, we must not use the electoral process which is anti-democratic (see the previous chapter), but by the random draw / sortition. It is by using this paramount step that the fight against all abuse of power will succeed and that is why all is said in this message : Because it is not right for the people in power to write the limits of their own power
“We want a democratic Constitutional Assembly, therefore randomnly drawn.”
To be able to randomly draw this Constitutional Assembly we can imagine different techniques. In the next chapter will be found a proposition for this process which could, under a year, lead to the writing of a constition that would protect the greater good and common interest.
5 – Writing a better constitution
You will find here a proposal amongst others for a constitutional process that would, without a doubt, lead to the writing of a better constitution. We can surely do better, and if you wish to participate in the debate, check out the Forum of Plan C
Phase 1: Selecting citizens.
Ever citizen, starting with the age of 18 (?) designates amongst the people he/she knows 3 (?) individuals with qualities compatible with the common interest and greater good. It must not necessarily be skilled individuals.Qualities that would be searched for could be, for example: honesty, bravery, altruism, patience, open to debate, analysis capability etc. We all know such people around us.
In opposition to an election, no one is candidate.Anyone can be designated with the exception of parliamentarians, government ministers or actual judges.Important: those who write or vote the Constitution will therefore be not eligible to power for a long time.At the end of this first step, some individuals will have been numerously designate, some individuals only a few times, others never.We will then have a list of 500.000, 1 million or maybe 2 million individuals, composed of women and men of all origins and of all social status’s and who would be candidate to nothing at all.
Phase 2: Random Draw / Sortition.
From this list of individuals, we discard the high and low values: those who have been designated only a few times and those who have been designated a vaste majority of times. This will prevent designating media personalities/icons, well versed speakers, and the temptation of running for “office”. From this reduced list (of hundreds of thousands individuals still) will be randomly drawn those who will form the Constitutional Assembly, maybe 577 individuals, for example.
A person that is randomly picked is allowed to refuse this responsibility and if/when he/she does, a new individual is randomly drawn. This sortition process is repeated until an Assembly is formed.You therefore have created a Constitutional Assembly that has the less interests, that is selfless, and the most representative of the people that can be achieved. The sortition / random draw process will bring the following: many poor, few rich, women and men, beleivers, atheists, business/company leaders, unemployed, farmers, intellectuals…
Phase 3: Writing the constitution, by the people.
The Constitutional Assembly thus formed will have months to prepare and write the text, to hear experts of all domains to shed some light on the debates. By their work, each individual will develop a necessary skill to participate in the discussions and make proposals.
Each article will be submitted to the vote of the Assembly.
Phase 4: Adopting the constitution, for the people.
A the end of the writing process, the text of the new Constitution will be submitted to the people via referendum.
There are certainly modifications to be made, ideas to bring.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160513032203/http://www.le-message.org/archives/29?lang=en
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutocracy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatocracy
Mangy dog READ THE FIRST LINE OF THE US CONSTITUTION AND MEMORIZE IT!
WE the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Since the Constitution came into force in 1789, it has been amended 27 times
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript
HAVE A NICE USA, CONSTITUTIONAL DAY!!