When a democracy can’t be called a democracy, or its definition must be changed to fit current circumstances, then its probably time to rethink our approach!
Democracy comes from an old Greek word that literally translates as “People Power” (they were the brains behind the basis of the whole Democratic system). Athens had about 250,000 residents at the time and all citizens had an open invitation to a regular forum which allowed them to have direct input on all issues relating to their society, that is: they did not go via representatives like we do today. Our current system is more like an oligarchy than a democracy.
Not everything was perfect about their system (women and children were not considered citizens and you needed to have TIME to go to these meetings which often meant those more well off were more likely to be involved), but it was the truest form of democracy humans have had in all recorded history.
James Madison (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Now such a system was just not possible when the constitutions of countries like America and Australia were set up. The land masses in which citizen lived were enormous, populations vastly larger, there were no means of communication like telephones, televisions, radios and there was certainly no internet! So there were lots of very sound reasons why James Madison and other US political thinkers of the time came up with the fair system of representation that Australia drew inspiration from and that we still have in place today.
But guess what people…times have changed!
We now have instantaneous communication with mobile phones and SMS, we have web infrastructure that allows for the calculation of information in mere nanoseconds and can be supported to withstand millions of visitors performing activities at the exact same time. In fact, 88% of Australians have access to the Internet and use it regularly. Back during the Howard Government days, this still wouldn’t have been possible, but it is all technically possible today.
So here we are with all this new fandangle technology, but we’re still plodding off to the polls. In the intervening 100+ years, no one’s thought to re-evaluate the system based on new capabilities.
Is there a fair and economical way that each Australian could get an actual say in the policies and workings of government? Is there a way that we could bring back power to the people and end political apathy in this country?
I believe the answer is YES, and there has never been a better time to make these changes because we have the technological capability to do it. Of course, our representatives won’t give up their power so easily so I believe a new political party would need to be formed to push for governance with the knowledge that the first thing they would change is the constitution and ultimately dismantle their own representative rule over time.
Below are a list of concepts that would underpin the proposed new democratic framework in Australia (and these same concepts could work for any society where democracy already exists and internet penetration is higher than 80%).
GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE & OPERATIONS
The new framework would keep the government split into two “houses”, but the basis of the houses would be different:
- The Upper House (the Senate), would become the Peoples Representative House – which has representatives from each electorate.
- The Lower House, would become known as the Knowledge & Wisdom house – in which each representative Minister is an expert in administration, policy and the area of their portfolio (e.g the Minster of Health must have prior direct administrative experience in the health industry).
Parliament House Canberra, Australia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Psychologically it makes more sense that the UPPER house, who are generally the reviewers, are representatives of the people, while it is the Australian people themselves (through voluntary policy voting) and portfolio experts who define the policies themselves. The Upper and Lower house most speak and interact much more regularly and freely than they currently do.
Checks 