In a previous post, I have lined out why DIRECT democracy is
the only viable system by which humanity could organize their communities
(local, regional, national and international). I have also explained the nuts
and bolts of a proposed direct democratic system.
The next question I would like to address is this: how could
communities transition to a direct democratic system?
First of all I would suggest that the voting / management
system I have described in my previous post, is developed as an open social
network. It could be a new social network, or an extension of an existing
network. What is of fundamental importance is that members are never charged to
use the system – true, functional democracy, is a human right, and as a
consequence, has to be free. Sponsorship and advertising on the service, to
compensate the system developers and administrators, would be acceptable. For
the sake of reference I give such an on-line system the codename: “OpenGov”.
Once the OpenGov on-line system has been developed, the
biggest challenge will be how to roll it out?
A direct democracy system will be in conflict with a
representational democracy or autocratic / oligarchic system. This is a fact of
life. It is also a fact of life that the majority of people are conditioned
into these dysfunctional political systems (i.e. a representational democracy
or autocratic / oligarchic systems), and the ship will not turn all that
easily. But there could be ways to speed up adoption of a direct democratic
system.
One way to speed up adoption would be to find champions for
OpenGov. The best champions would be famous people such as musicians, actors
and journalists.
It would also make sense to find new political parties, which
stands for direct democracy, and invite these parties to promote OpenGov as a
practical alternative system of community self-organization.
It is important to note that a direct democracy system could
start adding value to societies, in parallel to the existing dysfunctional political
systems, from day one.
Nothing will be better publicity for OpenGov than some
“early wins”. It would make sense to promote OpenGov in areas where public
service delivery is failing.
These are a few ideas about the roll-out of a direct
democratic system. We should have no illusions about the enormity of social
change that a system such as OpenGov proposes, and as a result of the scope of the
change, the inherent inertia towards adoption that will accompany it. But,
personally I cannot foresee a better alternative for humanity, than a truly
open, global direct democratic system of governance.
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