Blog - Page 2 of 2 - Democracy Upgrade

Short Interview with Smashwords
2020-07-02 Peter Monien

Finally, my book is not just available at Amazon. I also checked it in with Smashwords, one of the best-known distributors for ebooks. So you can expect it to be available in your ebook store shortly. Here is a very short interview that I did for Smashwords: Why do you write book about «Direct Democracy»? In the last years, I increasingly wondered what will be left of democracy when the current worldwide trend continues. And I started to think about how we can reverse this trend and inject more democracy into our political systems. After my research, I concluded that purely representative democracy is not going to solve this problem (and many other important problems). I studied systems with a direct democratic corrective like the Swiss model and found them to be the better (yet still improvable) alternative. In my research for potential improvements, I constantly stumbled over one aspect:

200+ Democracy Quotes
2020-06-24 Peter Monien

Political quotes as a primer for a new breed of political party: grassroot democratic, yet efficient and effective with safeguarded info and democratic processes and a 1:1 transfer to parliament.

Automation will continue to slash jobs
2019-12-26 Peter Monien

Automation: The test is not ‘Will there be new jobs we haven’t predicted yet that appear?’ Of course there will be. The real test is ‘Will there be millions of new jobs for middle-aged people with low skills and levels of education near the places they currently reside?

Don’t give away your vote for 4 years
2019-11-03 Peter Monien

Politics doesn’t represent the majority of the People. Even if an overwhelming majority is clearly in favor of a certain policy it doesn’t mean that this will translate to legislative action in parliament. An American study has shown that “when preferences of low- or middle-income Americans diverge from those of the affluent, there is virtually no relationship between policy outcomes and the desires of less advantaged groups.”[1] A German study revealed similar results. Some reasons for this disparity are: The political system is outdated and hands over power to politicians for 4 years on a very vague basis. The power structure within the system is heavily biased towards influential groups with money. These groups have a decisive influence on politicians and legislation. The internal structures of political parties are mostly far from democratic. It is time to Upgrade Democracy! What can be done to gain a real say in politics

How did I get the idea to write the book “Upgrading Democracy”?
2019-08-19 Peter Monien

I have only been really interested in politics and economics for about ten years. I was triggered by the financial crisis of 2007/2008, which suddenly made it clear to me how much of our lives is influenced by politically determined systems and how badly these are sometimes designed. In recent years I have very often asked myself what the politicians are now deciding in the name of the people and with their money: · TTIP (e.g. special courts for corporations to receive profits)· Berlin International Airport (Billion-euro grave without consequences for those responsible)· Merry VAT tax carousels· Self-empowerment of the European Central Bank (purchase of government bonds) · … Slowly I did not only doubt the abilities of the politicians. And I began to question the implementation of our political system itself. Searching for Alternatives In the search for alternatives, I have come across many solutions and technologies that