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02662: Democracy axioms

From: "Jiri Polak" <jiri.polak(at)swipnet.se>
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:01:27 +0200
Subject: Democracy axioms

I believe that attempts to draft a general Democracy Constitution are premature. We should begin in individual countries. In Czech Republic. a draft of Citizens´ Constitution has been published. I believe that the elements on which it is based could be generally accepted as "democracy axioms". They are:
1. The Constitution of any democratic country must be approved by the majority of citizens in a referendum. Parliaments are not competent to write and vote for a constitution since they promote the interests of various citizen categories (and certain clandestine interests), as well as the interests of party leaderships rather than the interests of citizens in general, and are electe for the next election period only.
2. The legislative and executive powers must be separated, while executive power, which must be non-partisan, must be subordinated to the legislative power, including referenda.
3. The basis for representation must be election districts, not political parties.
4. It must be possible to recall any politician if the majority of voters in the respective election district demand it.
5. The Head of State must be non-partisan and elected by all citizens in a direct personal election.
6. It must be legally and practically possible for the citizens to initiate a referendum on any issue, including foreign and defence policy; referendums must be binding and authorized to change decisions made in representative bodies. All representative bodies must operate on clearly defined mandates.
7. If an issue requires special knowledge, structured citizen deliberation - Planning Cells/Citizen Juries/Scientific deliberative Polling - must precede voting in referendum.
8. The citizens must have access to information concerning all political decisions made in representative bodie (transparence).
Any political system which lacks one or several of these attributes may not be called "democracy" and the citizens have the moral right to oppose it by any non-violent means.
I hope for comments.
Sincerely,

Jiri Polak
jiri.polak(at)swipnet.se

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