Getting back to the subject matter again.
Democracy is not a perfect form of government but it has the tendency to be better then the other forms that have been tried throughout the world. With a country that is new to democracy it would seem apparent to research those forms of democracy that are presently operating in the world and choose and incorporate those aspects that seem to serve the people and country the best.
Thomas Jefferson said about trusting each other: “Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?” If people can’t trust themselves and their neighbors to speak on their behalf, why do they think a group of strangers is somehow, magically, more trustworthy and suited to speak on their behalf? Simply because the strangers come from wealthy or powerful backgrounds? If you truly believe that we can’t trust one another, then you need to completely revamp your way of life, your educational system, and all other sources of influence on human behavior so that society produces more trustworthy people.
One critique of representative democracy is that it centralizes power into the hands of a few, thereby increasing the likelihood of corruption in and abuse of power by the government and other entities that hold power. This is very apparent in this country and the USA. According to my research 51 of the world’s wealthiest 100 economies are corporations—with the wealthiest in oil and gas, followed by banking, medicine, and high-tech. Together, the top 500 corporations earn $13 trillion per year.
How does corporate rule reward us? Their rewards to us are basically the same in the entire world but speaking mainly of the USA, soaring fuel and healthcare costs. Worsening private and public debts ($8 trillion U.S. debt). Financial scandals. Bankruptcies. Polluted air, land, and water. Global warming. Hunger. Poverty. Terrorism. And global war—with thousands of civilians and soldiers killed and wounded, and almost $100 billion of tax money spent per year, destroying terror weapons sold to Iraq by over 140 companies from around the world. When the White House hid the names of these companies, most of the U.S. media yawned. In the U.S., six corporations own 90% of all media.
All of which brings us back to the question of what is a person to do. People can continue to take the position of dormancy or they can arise from the dormant state and take an active part in the political process. This active part does not entail only voting. It entails meetings, discussions, using the media and internet and getting out there and getting your neighbors involved in the political process also. People relish belonging to a group or organization so why not try to form a group of citizens whose purpose is to discuss and propose better ways to run the government. Through these meeting there is the possibility of finding the ideal person to run for public office. When a better idea is suggested the present system allows you to draw up a petition and submit it to those that presently hold office. There are those that will say that nothing will come to pass by such endeavors but I say that this is a lie as there is always the posibility that you will get a response from an action BUT I can give a 100% guarantee that you will get NOTHING from an inaction except more of the same old, same old.
Speaking of 'same old'. El Caribe opinion columnist Marisol Vicens Bello on 10 Nov said "A large part of society is repelled by scandals of corruption, fraud and other crimes committed by officials called upon to enforce the law while these go on as if nothing had happened. Political parties do not worry that their candidates have been convicted or are being tried for felonies. She mentions the case of Radhames Ramos Garcia who is going to run again for deputy after having been convicted of a crime. Vicens states that this is a symptom of a sick society, contaminated by the cancer of corruption and that this is growing every day thanks to impunity. "We must employ moral sanctions to stop those who do not deserve to represent us and strive for better candidates to be elected", concluded Vicens". How about that "symptom of a sick society"? Do you feel like you belong to a "sick society"? Inaction besets inaction!
Speaking of societies, sick or not you determine, check out the ideas some Dominicans have concerning a governmental change here in the DR. Read the 'user comments' to the below listed article;
http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=4695
Another form of representative democracy involves impartial selection of representatives through sortition. Sortition is the method of random selection, particularly in relation to the selection of decision makers. Sortition was first used in Athenian democracy to select jurors and government officials. And, for the past 2000 plus years, sortition has been trusted to bring justice to individuals in public trials (jury selection)—but not to government. Why? Wealth, fame, and media have no power over it. Parties and their campaigns, corruption, and disunity disappear. Education and fair media are fully supported. With these benefits, it becomes apparent why founders of modern thought, like Aristotle and Solon, promoted sortition as the safeguard of democracy over 2000 years ago—and why its use should be even more important today. I must add that my opinion is that in a system of sortition a person picked could opt-out of such duty if they are so inclined.
I am not advocating a form of sortition for the selection for the officies of president, vice president, deputies or senators but almost all other elected offices, especially at the city level, would be more representative of the people through such a process.
Some modern political entities are closest to direct democracies (e.g., Switzerland or some U.S. states), where referenda are frequently used, and public means are provided to initiate referenda by petition instead of by the government.
Rick
