From: | "Mark Antell, editor CitizenPowerMagazine.net" <citizenp(at)citizenpowermagazine.net> |
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Date: | Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:14:39 -0400 |
Subject: | Progress on a couple of business items. |
Hi All, My previous note mentioned three business items. Item #1: Moving from Discussion to Decision, with specific reference to "partyless or true democracy." There's been a lot of discussion on "partyless democracy" of late. I'd hope that the principals supporting this concept will post an intiative for decisional vote via the process described in our charter*. Item #2: Filling the Executive Board Vacancy - Done, welcome Nicolas. Item #3: Automatic referendum on executive board decisions - There's been some discussion on this. My thoughts on this topic follow: The WDDM charter* in three short paragraphs (articles 9, 10, and 11) discusses decision making. Article #11 states that all executive board decisions are temporary. Executive board decisions must be submitted for referendum by the members, and they must be validated by a majority vote. This may or may not be a good idea. But it is in the charter which was adopted by a long, open, discussion process, plus a 2/3 vote of approval. Automatic referendum on executive board decisions means tight direct democracy control over the executive. I like the concept and I'd like to try to make it work. But it can be modified or dropped if need be. The charter contains two mechanisms for amendment. The executive board may post a charter amendment. Or the membership may post a charter amendment via initiative. In either case, a 2/3 positive vote from the voting membership is necessary for adoption of the charter amendment. I'm a stickler about constitutionalism. We all should be. Democracies don't work unless they have a defined order and method for elections (and for a lot of other issues like citizen rights). Whether the vote is on issues or representatives, democracy is about a well-described process to determine and carry-out the considered wishes of the constituency. * The charter can be found at http://www.world-wide-democracy.net/charter.html Mark Antell, member WDDM Executive Board PS. There's been some recent fascinating posts (from Lim, Daine, Kolar and Durand) on new methods of DD. Here's what the article 6 of the WDDM charter says about methods: "WDDM will be an exemplar for direct democracy. As much as possible, decision making power will flow from direct vote of the membership. And we will strive to test and implement cutting-edge methods to enhance deliberation. " I do hope and expect that we will be experimenting with Enitiatives this year. The Enitiatives methodology, as Nicolas has described it, is pretty much identical to the charter method for member-generated initiatives. PPS. The executive board has made exactly one decision since it was constituted. That decision was pretty non-controversial, speaking only to executive board communications. The charter calls for an automatic referendum on all executive decisions. Maybe it's a good idea to test the automatic referendum concept on this decision - because the outcome doesn't matter very much. Nicolas, can Enitiatives handle automatic referendum on executive board decisions? If not, I'll ask Mirek to post this executive-board decision for referendum using the existing WDDM methodology for elections. http://www.world-wide-democracy.net/charter.html --------------------------- Nicolas Durand wrote:
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