Richard Haass has hit the nail on the head, (The Age 28/12).
One leader, one regime replaces another, without real solution of the deeper problems of governance. Parties, leaders, factions all pursue power, not democracy – the rule of the people. It was ever thus, the mediaeval, the Machiavellian way, when power came from the muzzle of a gun. Time after time in history the people have been at the mercy of the whims of the powerful. Why?
The answer lies in the absence of an intelligent system of decision-making enabling a direct involvement of the people. The introduction of the ballot for elections has been partially successful in giving some power to the people, but stopped short at the election of ‘representatives’, whose representation is limited to party objectives making them ‘Busy, Yes. But effective?' as James Panichi explains in ‘Inside Story’, Swinburne, Number 7, 2011.
While prominent in Primary School graduations and the like, they are nevertheless able to stand aloof from the aspirations of an increasingly educated and thinking populace. So we, in our ‘advanced democracy’, are no useful model for the confused rebellions of the Arab Spring or any other. We have frustration with ineffective party governments. They have despair and death.
The power of modern weapons presents us with a crisis of world governance which can never be resolved until we face the challenge of real democracy—with each country having an increasing participation and authority of the people in the decision-making process.
An essential step forward is to determine that every deliberative assembly in each country is governed by the ballot of members — all being independent and holding regular forums for the growth of their constituents in political maturity.
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