No matter how democratic elections are conducted, the
final governing decisions are taken by a privileged few whose ideals and
objectives are hoped to be – but not necessarily - congruent with the
electorate who brought them to power. A clear shortcoming of this
traditional democratic process is the potential for political drift of the
elected few from the electorate.
Government by public opinion
In
general direct democracy refers to citizens
being empowered to make decisions on policy and law first hand,
without the need for representation. Recent direct democracy
proposals have focused on efficient methods that would allow widespread, virtually continual voting of
all citizens on whatever proposals surfaced. Furthermore
direct democracy allows anyone to propose law which, if they can get enough
of their fellow citizens to co-sponsor, can be voted on by the entire
electorate in the next election, thus bringing true democracy to grass roots
level.
Direct democracy can be brought to the people through
several medium including, traditional referendums, community meetings and
forums, postal ballets, call centers and the web. Much of the recent focus
on direct democracy has focused on the internet for delivery.
Direct
democracy was first proposed by George
Gallop in 1935 but as a system has not yet been fully implemented anywhere in the
world. Ross Perot in the United States was a prominent and advocated of
direct democracy through what he described as “electronic town halls"
during his 1992 and 1996 US Presidential campaigns. Switzerland is already
partially governed by direct democracy.
Electronic direct democracy
Electronic
direct democracy (EDD) is a form of direct democracy in which the Internet
and other electronic communications technologies are used to implement
efficient referendums. EDD requires electronic voting or some way to
register votes on issues electronically. EDD citizens would have the right
to vote on legislation, author new legislation and possibly elect or recall
representatives.
The
most notably global initiative toward an open source EDD is the Metagovernment
project which invites people to participate in governance as much or a
little as they wish. The basic principles of this Metagovernment
are as follows:
Government of, by, and for the
people - Anyone
may contribute to any open source government. Significant efforts will be
made to enfranchise those who are unable to contribute to a government.
Efforts will include conducting regular public meetings and promoting
dissemination of internet-access technologies.
Openness in everything - All
aspects of governance will be as open as possible, under the principle of
radical transparency. All software and systems used to run governments will
be open source software and systems.
Without consensus, there is no
law - Unless
consensus can be reached on how a law could address an issue, then there
will be no law on that issue.
Consensus through synthesis - When
opposing views are presented, preference is always given to synthesis
rather than either conflict or compromise.
Rating-based weighting - Contributions
are weighted by a rating-based scoring system. All ratings are themselves
weighted by the score of the person casting the rating. Generally, the more
one is respected by respected people in a community, the more say one has
in governance of that community.
Geographic distinctness within
a global community - Everyone in the world is
allowed to contribute to any government's website. However, people who
reside in a geographic region have a much greater say on issues affecting
their region than do others.
The
Pi endeavors to pursue similar principles is bringing the governing of
South Africa closer to its people.
© 2008
Progressive Initiative. The
Progressive Initiative rejects all forms of discrimination, embraces
democracy and encourages transparent politics. The views expressed in this
site are those of its members.