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Mechanisms to implement some of the agreed Values and Principles
Personal comment from Rob WHEELER
Monday, November 18, 2002 11:43 PM
ººº Abstract: Let us assume that either a Community of Ideas or some other
type of issue based committee will address specific topic areas. We could
then create multiple, or rather parallel, committees at each level of Assembly
and in various communities or regions around the world. Thus any one could
participate in discussion and debate where they live and at the level where
they have access. There are some ideas and tools that can help us ensure that
the principles of transparency, representativeness and direct participation
can be implemented, both for a world parliament and global governance ººº
Friends,
Tim Gilman speaks of transparency and representativity and says it implies
that a world parliament must be accessible to all citizens, across the entire
planet, all the time. Given that half the world's population might want to
speak on a certain global topic, the "floor" of the world parliament must be
able to accommodate and implicitly organize billions of voices into some
enormous form of dialogue.
He then asks, How do a million people get together to address a specific
problem? How can a system be created to enable one to go through the
historical records of a million people getting together to solve a problem,
with one hundred problems being dealt with in parallel?
How to creating a transparent and participatory system, both at WP and outside
This is central to creating a transparent and participatory system; and is
also important in relationship to how a WP relates to global governance and
to other intergovernmental institutions. To be specific, the things we do to
create a more participatory, inclusive, open and democratic type of WP can
also be used to increase participation in , transparency of, and knowledge
about other governmental processes. Similarly, this can include the mechanisms
and relationships needed to ensure that other governmental processes are
accountable to the citizenry or people of the world.
Here are some ideas about how we might ensure that these principles are
carried out. Let us assume that either a Community of Ideas or some other
type of issue based committee will address specific topic areas. We could
then create multiple, or rather parallel, Communities of Ideas or committees
at each level of Assembly and in various communities or regions around the
world. Thus any one that would want could participate in discussion and
debate where they live and at the level where they have access. One of the
key challenges might then be how to ensure that key ideas can be forwarded to
the various groups that are considering any particular subject. What good is
direct democracy and being able to give input, if one can not get their
ideas out to those that are discussing any particular matter?
Tools for direct participation online, regarding different topics and regions
Fortunately, there are some ideas and tools that can help us ensure that the
principles of transparency, representativeness and direct participation can
be implemented. I met a couple of fellows at the World Federalist Congress
this past summer that have set up the Global Democracy Experiment, which is a
website by which various proposals can be circulated in regards to any
particular topic. Then all that go to the website to read it can vote on the
proposals and select the one that they think is best. You can go to
www.tgde.org to see how this works.
Chat rooms also allow groups of people that are spread around the world to
work on a specific paper or proposal in multiple languages all at the same
time. Threaded list serves can provide an organize means for many people to
all address the same issue and respond logically to each other in detailed
form. They then allow the users to go into sub-issues and sub-sub issues; so
that one can be quite specific in the issues or matters that they address and
the participants can choose whichever discussions most particularly interest
them. And all of this can be archived along with particular results or
conclusions which come from the discussions, so that anyone that wants can go
back and read it.
In addition, the Global Peoples Assembly Network has developed a model for a
Delegates Council which would include representatives from, and the
participation of, local and regional assemblies or parliaments from around
the world. We can discuss this further in January when we consider the
internal and external workings of a WP, however the basic idea is that any
assembly could submit proposals to the delegates council for consideration.
The council could discuss the matter and then send it out to all those
participating in the world parliament for further consideration or
ratification.
This would thus provide a means for all peoples to be represented and for
local groups to give input to the global process. It would also provide a
means for representative participants to meet between actual sessions of the
world parliament; and could provide a mechanism through which a WP could
interact with other intergovernmental bodies at the global and other levels.
Thus these are a few examples of the types of mechanisms that could help us
implement the values and principles we choose for both a world parliament and
global governance.
All the best,
Rob Wheeler
WP21 Alliance Forum on a World Parliament for the 21st Century
E-mail : world-parl@forums.alliance21.org
Fax 1 717 264 5036
Information, inscriptions, désinscriptions: germa@alliance21.org
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