I agree the psychological framework of the people is an essential
dimension. The practice of treating the people as an amorphous mass
whose only political right is to express their approval or disapproval
of choices made by political parties is debilitating.
Those familiar with your Citizen Mundi project know how much work you
put into improving the political process. It is a difficult task. The
search for thoughtful open minds can be disheartening. I hope you won't
give up.
There is a widely held view that true democracy is impractical because
there are too many people - that there is no way to accommodate
everyone's point of view. Those who hold that view ignore the wisdom of
breaking the body politic into very small parts and building government
from those small parts.
Individuals with the qualities required to advocate the common interest
are uniformly distributed among the people. The fundamental challenge
of democracy is to find those people and empower them as our
representatives.
Some folks think the people are stupid or lazy or incompetent, and refer
to them as 'sheeple' who simply follow where they are led. I find that
denigrating term offensive. Those who use it never describe how they
would give the people a way to be more active in the political process.
You are, I think, familiar with the Practical Democracy concept. For
those who think the people incompetent, it may be worth pointing out
that, by the PD process, 2/3rds of the people will have fulfilled their
political responsibility after the first level completes and almost 90%
of them would have met their obligation after the second level. Those
who advance beyond that level have been judged by their peers to be
neither stupid, nor lazy nor incompetent. Instead, they will be members
of the vast pool of talent in our midst, individuals with the ability to
resolve public issues in the public interest.
The range of issues that concern the people is enormous. The
individuals most qualified to deal with the issues will vary with
circumstances and time. No set of selection rules can anticipate the
qualities required. Only the people, themselves, can do that. The
Practical Democracy proposal lets participants examine their peers with
regard to issues that concern them before choosing the individuals they
deem best qualified to represent them. The process is always responsive
to contemporary issues and dynamic interaction is ensured because each
election cycle starts with a fresh set of randomly selected triads.
PD disproves the notion that it is 'impractical' to heed everyone's
view. It lets the public discuss substantive matters --- with a purpose.
It gives participants time for deliberation and an opportunity to
understand the rationale for the positions of others. It lets every
member of the electorate affect the flow of events, to the full extent
of their desire and ability.
That is the essence of a democratic political process.
The road to better government must include:
* Giving the people meaningful participation in politics.
* Eliminating money from the political process.
* Ensuring the primary role of political parties is education.
Practical Democracy accomplishes these ends by changing the
psychological framework under which the people participate in their
government. However, since political power is presently vested in
political parties - and the money that supports them - the best hope of
achieving it lies in persuading the Citizen's Assemblies that are
popping up all over the world to consider alternatives that shift the
balance of power to the people.