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- The political system is outdated and hands over power to politicians for 4 years on a very vague basis.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 and achieve a more effective democracy?
How can this be achieved within the current political systems?
In my view we need a new parliamentary champion.
The Proxy Party in a Nutshell
We need a different breed of political party: A proxy party:
- A Proxy Party acts like a normal party but only serves the function of facilitating the opinion formation of its members and the 1:1 transfer of the results into parliament.
- A Proxy Party speaks to grassroots democracy, focusing on transparently safeguarding democratic and information processes
- A Proxy Party grants its party members the right to take on a decision themselves. The members can start an internal vote and transfer the decision-making power from the elected representatives and the party leadership and into their own hands. This only requires 5% of party members, including all delegated votes
A new Chance for Democracy
A great democracy has got to be progressive
Theodore Roosevelt
or it will soon too cease to be great or a democracy.”
What could a party achieve that is truly focused on representing its members as a true grassroots democracy – one that is efficient and transparent?
If you are fascinated by this idea you will be interested in reading my book “Upgrading Democracy: Claiming a Say to achieve True Democracy” that will come out by December 3rd. The reduced pre-order price is $2.99/€2.99.