Much of the world is growing up in difficult and challenging times. Most of humanity lives in materially less advantaged settings - no matter how rich or poor one's country of origin/residency is - yet many of us still had/have our privileges, advantages, and talents that benefited us. And just as everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, we all have different opinions, cultural nuances, and dreams for the future. Diversity is everywhere, yet the dominant political systems found in “the West” (and now increasingly globally) does not readily take this diversity into account. Representative democratic systems based on winner take all electoral processes, are dominated by capitalist power relationships that preference wealthy donors and special interests. These types of political systems are anything but egalitarian and inclusive – despite their advertising otherwise. Yet we continue to use these systems and pretend that they “hear” our voices, every person’s voices. yet they don't. So why don’t these systems take more voices into account? What is it that keeps these social systems from including more, if not all, of the people? could there be other ways to organize societies politically that would, or have been, more inclusive? Surely if there was we would be exploring them, right?
Beyond academic settings, in polite conversation with new acquaintances, if one critiques the capitalist (and capitalist democratic system) one is often met with a statement akin to: “so what is your solution?” To which there are the usual multitude of vague examples, possible options, educated speculation, informed examples, etc, that all touch on things we’ve read somewhere, people we’ve talked to, experiences we’ve had in other places, countries, and communities. It is easy to site quick fixes such as two rounds of elections, instant runoff balloting, campaign finance reform, and others, but they are not wholly conclusive or cohesive, nor truly powerful on a broader systemic or ideological level. In short, general solutions to the lack of democracy found within our capitalist democracy are incomplete, fragmented, and inconclusive. Even as one googles “alternative systems”, “alternative democracies”, etc, it is tough to find anything cohesive, anything that is bringing together other ways of living beyond the capitalist canon that is easily accessible and digestible for the everyday reader.
AnotherDemocracy.com is a space we as a society of intelligent people and intellectuals (organic and otherwise) can visit to impart knowledge of our interests, experiences, and research and to read about other ways that societies have structured their political lives. We start from a very basic definition of democracy using its etymological roots as a "rule by the people," meaning all of the people. The goal of the website is to find existing democracies, understandings of democracy, attempts at various types of democratic action, and how societies bring about change - no matter how small or large the scales, or old and new their existence. We will accumulate these in one place and will act as both a repository for democratic ideals and examples, but will also offer a space for community wide and creative contemplation and discussion that could synthesize these ideas into larger, more functional systems of political relations more akin to a “democratic rule by the people,” rather than our current rule by “some of the people”.
The project would include online facilitators made up of community members that act in a limited review and editorial capacity to organize the ideas and comprehensiveness of the presented materials. In time, this platform will act as a crowd sourced archive for democratic ideas, studies, and links that allows space for a more informed and community centered reimagining of democracy that stretches well beyond its current manifestations, and to a more inclusive future.
If you would like to be a part of this project, please use the contact form below...
Beyond academic settings, in polite conversation with new acquaintances, if one critiques the capitalist (and capitalist democratic system) one is often met with a statement akin to: “so what is your solution?” To which there are the usual multitude of vague examples, possible options, educated speculation, informed examples, etc, that all touch on things we’ve read somewhere, people we’ve talked to, experiences we’ve had in other places, countries, and communities. It is easy to site quick fixes such as two rounds of elections, instant runoff balloting, campaign finance reform, and others, but they are not wholly conclusive or cohesive, nor truly powerful on a broader systemic or ideological level. In short, general solutions to the lack of democracy found within our capitalist democracy are incomplete, fragmented, and inconclusive. Even as one googles “alternative systems”, “alternative democracies”, etc, it is tough to find anything cohesive, anything that is bringing together other ways of living beyond the capitalist canon that is easily accessible and digestible for the everyday reader.
AnotherDemocracy.com is a space we as a society of intelligent people and intellectuals (organic and otherwise) can visit to impart knowledge of our interests, experiences, and research and to read about other ways that societies have structured their political lives. We start from a very basic definition of democracy using its etymological roots as a "rule by the people," meaning all of the people. The goal of the website is to find existing democracies, understandings of democracy, attempts at various types of democratic action, and how societies bring about change - no matter how small or large the scales, or old and new their existence. We will accumulate these in one place and will act as both a repository for democratic ideals and examples, but will also offer a space for community wide and creative contemplation and discussion that could synthesize these ideas into larger, more functional systems of political relations more akin to a “democratic rule by the people,” rather than our current rule by “some of the people”.
The project would include online facilitators made up of community members that act in a limited review and editorial capacity to organize the ideas and comprehensiveness of the presented materials. In time, this platform will act as a crowd sourced archive for democratic ideas, studies, and links that allows space for a more informed and community centered reimagining of democracy that stretches well beyond its current manifestations, and to a more inclusive future.
If you would like to be a part of this project, please use the contact form below...
