Dear All,

I am giving below an outline of a possible web platform for True Democracy. The emphasis is to enable people to take part in the democratic process, independent of the political parties.

Step 1: To construct a web site where people can express regarding what they expect from their elected representatives in terms of the national, state or local electoral constituency to which they belong. The members can also indicate whether they would consider representing their electoral constituency, if selected by a fair process on the True Democratic platform.

Step 2: From a constituency having a population of 100,000 if about 10,000 become members and if about 100 of these are willing to work as the elected representative, then they can be subjected to the 'Troika process' of scrutiny as suggested by Fred in the thread "Seeking True Democracy". From 100, 33 triplets of people can be generated by the web platform in the first round and the results intimated. The selected triplets can then communicate among themselves through the web platform and subsequently meet on the ground in their constituency to evaluate each other.

Each member of a triplet votes for one out of the other two after understanding him well. The candidate who gets 2 votes gets elected. The merit of such a process of scrutiny has been well explained by Fred. From 33, 11 will be chosen and so on till finally one candidate can be chosen for that particular constituency. The voting and elimination procedure (which can be programed to take place a few months before a election is due) can be facilitated by the web platform. Thus the best possible candidate with True Democratic credentials can contest on behalf of the True Democracy platform in the next scheduled elections.

Candidates contesting on the True Democracy platform would be independents. Since they would have been evaluated thoroughly, there is every chance of they being people with integrity. The people of the constituency supporting True Democracy can help, to the extent possible, in the election campaign.

If the True Democracy candidate wins the election then the web platform can continue to help him(/her) interact with the people of the constituency who elected him. His performance inside the elected house would in all probability be close to ideal. Political parties may try to 'purchase' him but it would be fair to assume that since he is elected based on his own merits (and after thorough evaluation even before election by other prospective candidates during the elimination procedure), he would oblige none except the people. When a substantial number of candidates are elected in such a manner, then they can bring in legislations like I&BR and 'power to recall' to help True Democracy establish itself.

We thus have a mechanism where people who really wish to serve the people (as opposed to rule), have a chance to enter the democratic process. This web platform once set up, can be largely automated. We can start with a few countries where there is large penetration of internet. The site can be popularized on the internet initially. Once it has earned a good name over a period of years, it would be self sustaining. It would serve as a model for other similar sites in different languages. The cause of True Democracy would be well served.

The voter who registers himself on the platform has to give his name/user name and the electoral constituency to which he belongs as the minimum requirement. People belonging to countries where even this information may be used by the authorities to trouble them (as feared by Roy Daine), would naturally avoid using this platform.

No authority can question this process legally (at least in most countries of the world). The site may be attacked illegally, for which sufficient safeguards have to be built. The first few years would be crucial and uphill. But once it is popular the will of the people would carry it through.

It would be appropriate to recall the view of George Sagi, expressed with an air of resignation, in his greetings to the WDDM, brought to our notice by Mirek (Sept. 22, 2007): "He thinks that the only way to go is to concentrate on local issues, and to run for office within the established structures (parties) and if elected to try to achieve some change from such positions." The True Democracy platform may be the only way to do this and yet avoid merging with a political party and thus be subject to their mercy.

PVR



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/2009 08:08AM by PVR.