1 Joám Evans Pim (Partido da Terra) http://www.partidodaterra.net (Galiza)
"Direct and participatory democracy are not the same thing. The concept of direct democracy in the US (simply having referendums, initiatives and recall in the context of parliamentarism) is also different from a more literal meaning. Therefore, it is difficult to reply.
But, the best economic system for a direct democracy would be the system that the assembly of citizens decides :-)
In my personal view, Gandhian Economics of self-sufficiency would be the most connected with the logic of self-government of small sovereign assemblies, but that is certainly not the only option.
Here is an explanation of why (Google translate
from Portuguese): http://www.partidodaterra.net/noticia/gandhi-na-eira/"
"Direct and participatory democracy are not the same thing. The concept of direct democracy in the US (simply having referendums, initiatives and recall in the context of parliamentarism) is also different from a more literal meaning. Therefore, it is difficult to reply.
But, the best economic system for a direct democracy would be the system that the assembly of citizens decides :-)
In my personal view, Gandhian Economics of self-sufficiency would be the most connected with the logic of self-government of small sovereign assemblies, but that is certainly not the only option.
Here is an explanation of why (Google translate
from Portuguese): http://www.partidodaterra.net/noticia/gandhi-na-eira/"
2 David Ding (www.thrivenz.org.nz) Thrive NZ (New Zealand)
"In context of the people being empowered to co-create society together, it ultimately means they are able to remove the obstacles and barriers preventing them from Thriving, the economic system is probably the greatest obstacle modern society faces at this time.
For a society whose singularity of purpose is to Thrive, the success of government can be viewed as how efficiently and effectively people can access the things they need and want in order to Thrive. In this context fiat currency can no longer exist as it creates gross imbalance between the value of goods and services available in a nation vs. what is available in the money supply that can be spent and is not servicing debt. So for money to perform its role in facilitating the exchange of goods and services effectively we must remove incentives for anyone to hoard it and ensure it is not viewed as a commodity independent of the goods and services it was designed to facilitate the trade of. As we all know people don’t need a piece of paper with numbers printed on it in order to Thrive and idle money sitting in a bank earning interest cannot being spent in the economy producing the things that people need and want.
In order to remove the debt based model it is also critical for a nation reclaim sovereignty over their own currency. For example any government that relies on the IMF or similar to increase their money supply is creating huge dependency with massive levels of debt and interest to repay by tax payers/profits from state owned enterprises etc. The IMF know that any nation that chooses to claim sovereignty over their currency can’t print billions of dollars to repay the immense levels of debt due to the inflationary impact of flooding the market with their currency which gives them immense power. So for a nation to release themselves from this dependency they must consider debt relief as an option. In return they will be free of the onerous expectations of the IMF who are heavily involved in the direction of many nations in the world. A private company having the power to print money when a government cannot makes no sense I’m sure you will agree.
Once a nation has relieved themselves from debt they can then print money and spend it into the economy in multiple different ways that will keep inflation in check as long as they maintain a balance between the amount of spendable money available in the money supply vs the value of goods and services available. The immense benefit here is that when the government invests money in developing industries that produce goods and services, the economy grows, it creates more jobs, there is more money in the money supply being spent stimulating economic activity and of course more goods and services are produced. This model mirrors the evolutionary process of a thriving species found in nature. (Everything Thrive New Zealand is presenting is aligned with Natural Law by the way.)
This is obviously a massive topic and there are other necessary adjustments that must be made, including complementary currencies and the development of a balanced constitution/bill of rights. Our party – Thrive New Zealand is developing proposed policy and implementation of this model as we speak and will gladly share it with any international political parties that are similarly aligned. We are also working on a new written constitution that we are floating to the people of NZ and inviting them to contribute towards to ensure it is of the people and for the people. It is our goal for this to be run alongside Common Law."
"In context of the people being empowered to co-create society together, it ultimately means they are able to remove the obstacles and barriers preventing them from Thriving, the economic system is probably the greatest obstacle modern society faces at this time.
For a society whose singularity of purpose is to Thrive, the success of government can be viewed as how efficiently and effectively people can access the things they need and want in order to Thrive. In this context fiat currency can no longer exist as it creates gross imbalance between the value of goods and services available in a nation vs. what is available in the money supply that can be spent and is not servicing debt. So for money to perform its role in facilitating the exchange of goods and services effectively we must remove incentives for anyone to hoard it and ensure it is not viewed as a commodity independent of the goods and services it was designed to facilitate the trade of. As we all know people don’t need a piece of paper with numbers printed on it in order to Thrive and idle money sitting in a bank earning interest cannot being spent in the economy producing the things that people need and want.
In order to remove the debt based model it is also critical for a nation reclaim sovereignty over their own currency. For example any government that relies on the IMF or similar to increase their money supply is creating huge dependency with massive levels of debt and interest to repay by tax payers/profits from state owned enterprises etc. The IMF know that any nation that chooses to claim sovereignty over their currency can’t print billions of dollars to repay the immense levels of debt due to the inflationary impact of flooding the market with their currency which gives them immense power. So for a nation to release themselves from this dependency they must consider debt relief as an option. In return they will be free of the onerous expectations of the IMF who are heavily involved in the direction of many nations in the world. A private company having the power to print money when a government cannot makes no sense I’m sure you will agree.
Once a nation has relieved themselves from debt they can then print money and spend it into the economy in multiple different ways that will keep inflation in check as long as they maintain a balance between the amount of spendable money available in the money supply vs the value of goods and services available. The immense benefit here is that when the government invests money in developing industries that produce goods and services, the economy grows, it creates more jobs, there is more money in the money supply being spent stimulating economic activity and of course more goods and services are produced. This model mirrors the evolutionary process of a thriving species found in nature. (Everything Thrive New Zealand is presenting is aligned with Natural Law by the way.)
This is obviously a massive topic and there are other necessary adjustments that must be made, including complementary currencies and the development of a balanced constitution/bill of rights. Our party – Thrive New Zealand is developing proposed policy and implementation of this model as we speak and will gladly share it with any international political parties that are similarly aligned. We are also working on a new written constitution that we are floating to the people of NZ and inviting them to contribute towards to ensure it is of the people and for the people. It is our goal for this to be run alongside Common Law."
3. Rui Martins (www.MaisDemocracia.org) +D = Mais Democracia (Portugal)
"In my view, in a truly and real participatory democracy (or "Democracy 2.0") the economy must have also participatory aspects.
Without that, the democracy will never be complete and full, and the overwhelming power of the ruling 1% will supersede the democratic power, as we can observe today in most of the western countries of the world.
There are many ways to close this circle:
1. Develop self-management tools and procedures, like those already running enterprise like Mondragon (Basque Country) or several cooperative enterprises (USA).
2. Research, develop and implement the concepts of Participatory economics (Parecon).
Those 2 ways, together with a focus on Local Economies and Local Currencies, in the models of the economist E. F. Schumacher and currently promoted by the E. F. Schumacher Society, can be a strong and essential support for a complete Participatory Democracy.
