Participatory politics
Encyclopedia
Participatory politics or parpolity is a theoretical political system proposed by Stephen R. Shalom, professor of political science at William Paterson University
in New Jersey
.
It was developed as a political vision to accompany participatory economics
(Parecon). Both Parecon and Parpolity together make up the libertarian socialist ideology of Participism
. Shalom has stated that Parpolity is meant as a long range vision of where the social justice
movement might want to end up, within the field of politics.
The values on which parpolity is based are freedom, self-management
, justice
, solidarity and tolerance
. The goal, according to Shalom, is to create a political system that will allow people to participate, as much as possible in a face to face manner. The proposed decision-making principle is that every person should have say in a decision proportionate to the degree to which she or he is affected by that decision.
The vision is critical of aspects of modern representative democracies arguing that the level of political control by the people isn’t sufficient. To address this problem Parpolity suggests a system of Nested Councils, which would include every adult member of a given society.
grounds. The councils would be based on consensus, though majority votes are allowed when issues cannot be agreed upon.
Each local council would send a delegate to a higher level council, until that council fills with 25-50 members. These second level councils would pass laws on matters that effect the 625 to 2500 citizens that it represents. A delegate to a higher level council is bound to communicate the views of her or his sending council, but is not bound to vote as the sending council might wish. Otherwise, Shalom points out that there is no point in having nested councils, and everyone might as well vote on everything. A delegate is recallable at any time by her or his sending council. Rotation of delegates would be mandatory, and delegates would be required to return to their sending councils frequently.
The second level council sends a delegate to a third level council, the third level councils send delegates to a fourth level and so on until all citizens are represented. Five levels with 50 people on every council would represent 312,500,000 voters (around the population of the United States). However, the actual number of people represented would be even higher, given that young children would not be voting. Thus, with a further sixth level nested council, the entire human population could be represented. This would not however be equatable to a global world state, but rather would involve the dissolution of all existing nation-states and their replacement with a worldwide confederal "coordinating body" made of delegates immediately recallable by the nested council below them.
Lower level councils have the opportunity to hold referenda
at any time to challenge the decisions of a higher level council. This would theoretically be an easy procedure, as when a threshold of lower level councils call for a referendum, one would then be held. Shalom points out that sending every issue to lower level councils is a waste of time, as it is equivalent to referendum democracy.
There would be staff employed to help manage council affairs. Their duties would perhaps include minute taking and researching issues for the council. These council staff would work in a balanced job complex defined by a participatory economy.
. It would rule on laws passed and would be able to veto
them if the court deemed them contrary to human rights. Shalom argues the council court should be unelected, as elected members could hold the biases of an oppressive majority.
The two year terms of the council would be staggered: As 21 reached the one year midpoint of their term, the other 20 would reach the end of their two year term and be replaced by a new group of 20. A year later, when that new group of 20 reached the midpoint of their term, the older group of 21 would reach the end of their term, to be replaced by a new group of 21.
It is not clear how the court would operate, i.e. by majority vote or by consensus. The council court would also have the right to rule on which council, economic or political, has a right to vote on a given issue. A dispute between councils would presumably be resolved by this court, for instance if a minority population insists that its vote should count for more than the larger population, as the majority wants to cause environmental damage to a lake that the minority lives near. The council court would be responsible for evaluating this claim, and many different possible rulings could be given. The guiding principle would be that those most affected by the decision would have the most say.
Regular criminal courts
would remain essentially the same, though there might be more juries.
s and encourage diverse viewpoints should be given extra funding.
William Paterson University
William Paterson University is a comprehensive public institution located in Wayne, New Jersey serving nearly 11,000 undergraduate and graduate students through five colleges: , , , , and ....
in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
.
It was developed as a political vision to accompany participatory economics
Participatory economics
Participatory economics, often abbreviated parecon, is an economic system proposed primarily by activist and political theorist Michael Albert and radical economist Robin Hahnel, among others. It uses participatory decision making as an economic mechanism to guide the production, consumption and...
(Parecon). Both Parecon and Parpolity together make up the libertarian socialist ideology of Participism
Participism
Participism is a libertarian socialist political philosophy consisting of two independently created economic and political systems: participatory economics or "parecon" and participatory politics or "parpolity"...
. Shalom has stated that Parpolity is meant as a long range vision of where the social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
movement might want to end up, within the field of politics.
The values on which parpolity is based are freedom, self-management
Workers' self-management
Worker self-management is a form of workplace decision-making in which the workers themselves agree on choices instead of an owner or traditional supervisor telling workers what to do, how to do it and where to do it...
, justice
Justice
Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...
, solidarity and tolerance
Toleration
Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...
. The goal, according to Shalom, is to create a political system that will allow people to participate, as much as possible in a face to face manner. The proposed decision-making principle is that every person should have say in a decision proportionate to the degree to which she or he is affected by that decision.
The vision is critical of aspects of modern representative democracies arguing that the level of political control by the people isn’t sufficient. To address this problem Parpolity suggests a system of Nested Councils, which would include every adult member of a given society.
Nested Councils
In a parpolity, there would be local councils of voting citizens consisting of 25-50 members. These local councils would be able to pass any law that affected only the local council. No higher council would be able to override the decisions of a lower council, only a council court would be able to challenge a local law on human rightsHuman rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
grounds. The councils would be based on consensus, though majority votes are allowed when issues cannot be agreed upon.
Each local council would send a delegate to a higher level council, until that council fills with 25-50 members. These second level councils would pass laws on matters that effect the 625 to 2500 citizens that it represents. A delegate to a higher level council is bound to communicate the views of her or his sending council, but is not bound to vote as the sending council might wish. Otherwise, Shalom points out that there is no point in having nested councils, and everyone might as well vote on everything. A delegate is recallable at any time by her or his sending council. Rotation of delegates would be mandatory, and delegates would be required to return to their sending councils frequently.
The second level council sends a delegate to a third level council, the third level councils send delegates to a fourth level and so on until all citizens are represented. Five levels with 50 people on every council would represent 312,500,000 voters (around the population of the United States). However, the actual number of people represented would be even higher, given that young children would not be voting. Thus, with a further sixth level nested council, the entire human population could be represented. This would not however be equatable to a global world state, but rather would involve the dissolution of all existing nation-states and their replacement with a worldwide confederal "coordinating body" made of delegates immediately recallable by the nested council below them.
Lower level councils have the opportunity to hold referenda
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
at any time to challenge the decisions of a higher level council. This would theoretically be an easy procedure, as when a threshold of lower level councils call for a referendum, one would then be held. Shalom points out that sending every issue to lower level councils is a waste of time, as it is equivalent to referendum democracy.
There would be staff employed to help manage council affairs. Their duties would perhaps include minute taking and researching issues for the council. These council staff would work in a balanced job complex defined by a participatory economy.
Council Courts
Shalom suggests that a council court be formed of 41 randomly chosen citizens that have two year terms. Shalom claims that the number 41 ensures a broad range of opinions, although he says that this number is just a suggestion and it could be lower or higher as long as it was big enough for a diversity of opinion but small enough for discussion and debate. This court would be a check against the tyranny of the majorityTyranny of the majority
The phrase "tyranny of the majority" , used in discussing systems of democracy and majority rule, is a criticism of the scenario in which decisions made by a majority under that system would place that majority's interests so far above a dissenting individual's interest that the individual would be...
. It would rule on laws passed and would be able to veto
Veto
A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is the power of an officer of the state to unilaterally stop an official action, especially enactment of a piece of legislation...
them if the court deemed them contrary to human rights. Shalom argues the council court should be unelected, as elected members could hold the biases of an oppressive majority.
The two year terms of the council would be staggered: As 21 reached the one year midpoint of their term, the other 20 would reach the end of their two year term and be replaced by a new group of 20. A year later, when that new group of 20 reached the midpoint of their term, the older group of 21 would reach the end of their term, to be replaced by a new group of 21.
It is not clear how the court would operate, i.e. by majority vote or by consensus. The council court would also have the right to rule on which council, economic or political, has a right to vote on a given issue. A dispute between councils would presumably be resolved by this court, for instance if a minority population insists that its vote should count for more than the larger population, as the majority wants to cause environmental damage to a lake that the minority lives near. The council court would be responsible for evaluating this claim, and many different possible rulings could be given. The guiding principle would be that those most affected by the decision would have the most say.
Regular criminal courts
Criminal justice
Criminal Justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts...
would remain essentially the same, though there might be more juries.
Law Enforcement
Shalom argues that police will be necessary even in a participatory society, as you cannot expect crime to disappear even in a good society. Also, police work is a specialized occupation, demanding specialized skills. Police work would be part of a balanced job complex and would be scrutinized by independent review boards.Media
Shalom notes that a vibrant and diverse media is essential for a functioning democracy. A participatory economy would have consumers of media indicating the types of media they desire, and these would be generated according to demand. To help ensure diversity, Shalom recommends that media that show debateDebate
Debate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
s and encourage diverse viewpoints should be given extra funding.
See also
- Libertarian socialismLibertarian socialismLibertarian socialism is a group of political philosophies that promote a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic, stateless society without private property in the means of production...
- Council communismCouncil communismCouncil communism is a current of libertarian Marxism that emerged out of the November Revolution in the 1920s, characterized by its opposition to state capitalism/state socialism as well as its advocacy of workers' councils as the basis for workers' democracy.Originally affiliated with the...
- Soviet Democracy
- Participatory EconomicsParticipatory economicsParticipatory economics, often abbreviated parecon, is an economic system proposed primarily by activist and political theorist Michael Albert and radical economist Robin Hahnel, among others. It uses participatory decision making as an economic mechanism to guide the production, consumption and...
External links
- OpenDemocratic - Open platform for participatory management of political parties
- Article about Parpolity: Political Vision for a Good Society by Stephen R. Shalom
- Stephen Shalom interviewed about Parpolity by Vancouver COOP Radio
- MP3 Audio of above interview with Stephen Shalom
- Projects for a Participatory Society web site
- London (Ontario) Project for a Participatory Society