Economic and financial democracy by citizens
iniref | 04.05.2010 10:10 | South Coast
The major political parties offer no convincing reforms for effective political participation. With citizen-led direct democracy, important national, international and local issues can be selected, widely debated and put to referendum even against the will of government. Help to build the movement for radical democracy.
"We used to have a balanced economy in which the manufacturing base contributed massively, providing jobs, a tax base etc. The City boys decided that it would be more profitable to move those jobs to low-wage, high-profit countries, ie in Asia.
We had no choice, nobody called a referendum or made it part of their election manifesto. The City decided. And the parties all nodded their assent.
All our economic and financial woes follow from that decision, as does the widening wealth gap, the pension deficit, the triumph of the hedge fund managers and on and on." ( Memessime 3 May 2010)
Comment by INIREF
We could not call a referendum because we, as a people and electorate, have no right to do so. A recent example of a citizens' initiative in the realm of "big finance" is the Abzocker Initiative in Switzerland. Abzocker means roughly "Fat Cat". Bankers and managers who pay themselves excessively fall under this category. The Abzocker Initiative proposes that a national referendum be held to bring this sort of greed under control.
With the right to citizen initiated referendum in Britain then at least some warning shots could have been fired across the bows of speculators and lax regulators.
We need to introduce elements of direct democracy.
Electoral reform seems a worthy idea but we should not forget that only INdirect democracy would be improved. We are left with the "representative rule" allowing us a voice, choosing others to govern for us, once every five or so years.
It would be better for our democracy to introduce elements of citizen-led, direct democracy, which enable the electorate to introduce proposals and veto unwanted policy during the life of a parliament.
See more:
Arguments, free materials
http://www.iniref.org/index.enter.html
Election strategy for more democracy http://www.iniref.org/
Help to spread these ideas and build the movement.
We had no choice, nobody called a referendum or made it part of their election manifesto. The City decided. And the parties all nodded their assent.
All our economic and financial woes follow from that decision, as does the widening wealth gap, the pension deficit, the triumph of the hedge fund managers and on and on." ( Memessime 3 May 2010)
Comment by INIREF
We could not call a referendum because we, as a people and electorate, have no right to do so. A recent example of a citizens' initiative in the realm of "big finance" is the Abzocker Initiative in Switzerland. Abzocker means roughly "Fat Cat". Bankers and managers who pay themselves excessively fall under this category. The Abzocker Initiative proposes that a national referendum be held to bring this sort of greed under control.
With the right to citizen initiated referendum in Britain then at least some warning shots could have been fired across the bows of speculators and lax regulators.
We need to introduce elements of direct democracy.
Electoral reform seems a worthy idea but we should not forget that only INdirect democracy would be improved. We are left with the "representative rule" allowing us a voice, choosing others to govern for us, once every five or so years.
It would be better for our democracy to introduce elements of citizen-led, direct democracy, which enable the electorate to introduce proposals and veto unwanted policy during the life of a parliament.
See more:
Arguments, free materials
http://www.iniref.org/index.enter.html Election strategy for more democracy
http://www.iniref.org/ Help to spread these ideas and build the movement.
iniref
e-mail:
info@iniref.org
Homepage:
http://www.iniref.org/
Comments
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Problems with direct democracy
03.04.2011 19:09
Big corporations have the means to publish all kinds of vile propaganda to deceive a public fed e.g. on xenophobic lies. Or they declare a 'people's initiative' invalid. For example, when unemployment first hit the country a referendum was started calling for working hours to be cut without loss of pay. This was declared unconstitutional on the grounds that it would require two separate referenda, one to cut the working hours and lose pay, the other to restore the pay afterwards...... One town wanted a new hospital - or the old one, which was infested and causing unnecessary deaths, to be thoroughly renovated. The authorities declared that this would mean a giant rise in local tax, so gave citizens the option of having more people die or paying more tax [They chose the first. But more recently the new wave of privatisation brought a new hospital anyway]
I taught piano and recorder etc, part-time at local schools. This was many years ago. Such was the then democracy that in one village I had to be elected to that position by the local community. They put up your picture in the local paper and a few words about you. So far so good. But then representatives had the right to coe into your lessons and give orders. For example, one man came in when we were choosing what Christmas songs to learn. He told me off for wasting time. I should have decided for them in advance. More seriously - in neutral Switzerland - a teacher was sacked for going on a peaceful demonstration against the Vietnam war.
I am entirely and completely in favour of the greatest possible amount of direct democracy, but that has to extend to owneship of the press, membership of constitutional bodies etc. otherwise it is just another tool to be manipulated by the privileged elite
Juliian SIlverman
e-mail:
js@phonecoop.coop