Image 2: Institutions 

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Global Online Democracy organization

In 1911 the German sociologist Robert Michels first developed the political theory “Iron law of oligarchy”. It states that all forms of organization, regardless of how democratic they may be at the start, will eventually and inevitably develop oligarchic tendencies, thus making true democracy practically and theoretically impossible, especially in large groups and complex organizations.

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The Global Online Democracy challenges this theory by creating a non-profit organization based on the worker-cooperative model, owned and self-managed by its workers. Workers alike all registered users on the Global Online Democracy platform share the same rights.

 

Together these groups of people democratically participate in decision-making. Their task is to decide by vote on operational and managerial matters regarding the running of the Global Online Democracy organization.

 

The organization will be responsible for the following tasks:

 

Coordination – voting for key roles

Elections will be set according to the public’s satisfaction for its executive leadership. A high number of people can choose to open an election. When the number of votes exceeds the required level, the voting process will start and the deadline will be set.

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Once the election has been opened, anyone can stand for nomination online for any open key role in the executive authority.

 

Voting takes place at the Global Online Democracy platform and follows a usual online voting process.

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Coordination – voting for issues

The overall voting process, from approving issues to the voting results, is overseen by a dedicated department at the Global Online Democracy organization.

 

The organization will assign issues to the relevant Decision Supporting Institution for packaging the information and for overseeing objectivity of the produced material. It will also guarantee that the voting process follows a legal, fair and equal manner.

 

Bill Of Demands

Once the voting deadline has ended, a list of execution plans in a variety of subjects is packaged into a bi-annual Bill Of Demands. The Global Online Democracy organization will distribute each execution plan to the relevant Executive Supporting Institution.

 

Financing

All activities of the Global Online Democracy organization will be financed solely by donations to avoid infestation of money-related interests affecting decisions made at the institutions. The donations made will not affect the individual’s voting unit.

 

The finance department will be in charge of collecting donations and distributing the resources to the institutions. They will also ensure there are enough funds available for the operation of the organization.

 

Decision Supporting Institution

The Decision Supporting Institutions key role is to package and present easy-to-understand information about a particular issue.

 

This information is presented on the Global Online Democracy platform for the global community to learn more and to base their decision on. The information package includes description and status of the issue, history, different narratives, researches, potential future complications and possible solutions as well as a financial plan. The responsibilities will also include deciding on a schedule for the voting process as well as for the execution period. The executive authorities have no decision-making power.

 

The Global Online Democracy organization will encourage competition. Users, groups of users or institutions can suggest other solutions for an issue. Solutions will be rated and go up in ranking according to the number of votes they receive. The higher the ranking the higher the visibility for all users.

 

There are four kinds of institutions that support decision-making:

 

Legislative authorities

Legislative authorities today are responsible for creating laws, regulations and policies. In the era of Global Online Democracy, their main task will change from a legislator to information provider. Creating new legislation will be the task of the people.

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Academic programmes

Academic programs around the world are joining their efforts in organising the information for various issues. Academic departments receive issues related to their subject from the Bank of issues. The head of the department and the Global Online Democracy organization together oversee the students’ work and the objectivity of the information presented.

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Research centres and institutes​

Research centres and institutions have two key roles. They act as a decision-supporting institution receiving issues from the Global Online Democracy organization. They also act as a research supporting institution for Academic programmes, Legislative authorities and Local establishments when they require deeper researched information.

 

Regional institutions

Regional institutions, such as City halls or other local authorities, are responsible for bringing the people of the region accurate information about issues within their region.

 

Local cooperation

The residents of the local level, i.e. neighborhoods in a certain area, will agree upon issues on the local level. They will debate upon solutions and once agreed they will execute the chosen solution, led by the Neighborhood Committee.

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Executive Supporting Institution

The Executive supporting authorities main role, whether presidential, parliamentary or semi-presidential, is to execute and enforce laws, policies and regulations according to the Bill Of Demands. Representatives for office are chosen and voted by people in the relevant regions. The voting takes place on the Global Online Democracy platform. The tenure of a representative is subject to peoples’ satisfaction towards the accomplished work. New candidates can stand for nomination at any given time.

 

The executive authorities have no decision-making power – they do not set priorities nor make any decisions regarding policies, regulations and laws.

 

As all institutions operating under the umbrella of the Global Online Democracy organization, also the Executive Supporting Institutions will be subject to improvements, evaluations, changes and modifications.

 

There are four kinds of institutions to support execution:

 

Local Executive Authority – Neighbourhood committee

The residents of a local area choose Local neighbourhood committee members. Voting takes place at the Global Online Democracy platform. The committee consists of representatives from the region. The main role of the committee is to organise and execute changes voted by the people of the region while coordinating the changes with the Regional execution authority for financing.

 

Regional Executive Authority – City hall

The Regional Executive Authority acts as the main executer on the regional level. Its role is to execute the regional people's decisions as planned in the Bill Of Demands.  

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National Executive Authority

The National Executive Authority’s role is to execute decisions of the people on the national scale according to the Bill Of Demands. Ministers’ role will stay the same however instead of voting for policies, laws and regulations, their only responsibility lies within the execution.

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Global Executive Authority – High committee

The Global Executive Authority ministers are chosen by the people of the world from a pool of candidates who stand for nomination online. The global high ministers are responsible for a variety of subjects, such as agriculture, education, economy etc and oversee the execution of policies voted by the people according to the Bill Of Demands.

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Regulations and control mechanisms

The regulation and control mechanisms exist to persuade executive authorities and leaders around the world to act upon the Bill Of Demands. All activities of the Regulation and control mechanisms are non-violent.

 

The following activities are available in case a leader will not accept the Bill Of Demands, not execute the plans, or give up authority:

 

Coordination of voting for new executive leadership

The procedure will open by a formal announcement in the media calling for new candidates. Deadline is set, candidates will present themselves on their page at the Global Online Democracy platform. People vote directly online. After the election, the new executive leadership starts their term of office without delay.

 

In a case, the former executive leadership are not giving up their place in office the Regulation and control mechanisms department will advance to Call To Protest followed by Call To Strike.

 

Coordinating a Call To Protest

Call To Protest activities are organised and executed by the Global Online Democracy organization. The activities include publicising the protest, coordinating with local law enforcement, organising the necessary permits and the sequence of events as well as marketing the event online and offline. Should the executive authority not comply with the demands of the people, the process will advance to Coordinating a Call To Strike.   

 

Coordinating a Call To Strike

Call To Strike is organised by the Global Online Democracy organization. The process aims to create a general strike in the region until the governance authority will cooperate according to Bill Of Demands. The activities will include for example spreading the word about the strike, coordinating closure of the workplaces and marketing the strike online and offline.

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PLATFORM

 

The Global Online Democracy platform acts as a global coordinator between all the parts of the Global Online Democracy organization and its supporting institutions. It is the most significant task is to coordinate the voting process of the people around the world.

 

The platform presents a collection of issues in a variety of subjects. All content on the site is transparent – it will be visible and accessible to everyone. The user interface automatically shows a tailor-made view based on the user’s geographical location, personal political interest and level of engagement.

 

The user interface is divided into the four geographical sections; local, regional, national and global. Each level has sub-sections, such as education, infrastructure, nature, economics, health, security etc. Issues that require immediate attention and shorter decision-making cycle, such as natural disaster, genocide, plague and nuclear war, have higher priority and therefore more prominent visibility for users. 

 

User’s information is private and protected, votes are not visible to others. Voting results, however, are shown as a graph during the voting period giving people around the world a general notion of where the voting is headed.

 

The platform also contains a user-generated Global constitution and Book Of Laws. 

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Global Agile Constitution

The Global Constitution is created by the global community via the Global Online Democratic platform. The constitution is transparent for all.  

 

Users can modify it by suggesting new formulations to each sentence and vote for or against these formulations. The sentence with the highest number of votes will be added to the constitution as a permanent declaration. The constitution will come into effect 1st January each year. During the next year, people can again participate in improving the constitution for the year ahead.

 

All public institutions in all geographical areas are obligated to apply and act according to the Global Constitution without any delay or modification.

 

The main aim of the constitution is to create an effective system of regulated restrictions on government activities. The second is to determine civil rights and by that to determine the boundaries of governmental authorities in practice. The third is to define the political power structure; define the governance structure and draw the paths for authority and legislative procedures.

 

In simple words, the constitution will determine the responsibilities and boundaries of governance institutions, watch over the individual from a potentially harsh hand of the governance authority and determine equal personal and social rights for every individual.

 

Book of laws

All the laws that are determined by the people are added to the Book Of Laws on the Global Online Democracy platform. Every user around the world can download the Book Of Laws at any given time.

 

Problem/Issue Page – general

Each problem in need of solving, on the Global Online Democracy platform, has its page. The page shows detailed information and exact voting deadlines in a digital format. Depending on the geographical level of the issue, the information is collected, processed and summarised users at first. As the issue increaser in engagement and ranking the page management will be assigned to an expert establishment in the field of the issue.

 

The information is packaged into an easily understandable format for evaluation. The main feature will be a short video summarizing the issue’s facts and challenges. As the user gains more knowledge about the issue by exploring documentation, statistics, videos etc. The user's voting power for the specific issue increases accordingly.

 

Gamification

Gamification elements will encourage users to engage in more issues and improve the individual voting unit value.

 

Rating

Many features at the Global Online Democracy platform will be subject to user ratings. For example, as more people vote for issues and potential solutions, the ranking will get higher and the visibility better for other users. Moreover, voting people for key roles in the executive authority will also include the rating feature bringing more visibility to the representative standing for nomination.

 

Budgeting and financing of an issue

Each solution has its budgeting section, created by the appointed Decision Supporting Institution. The budget will be open for the public and involve participatory budgeting in which people can review in more depth the budgeting sections and offer suggestions of how to make the budget more practical and cost-effective.

 

Transparency and cybersecurity

To ensure a safe journey changing the world, all information on the Global Online Democracy platform must be fully transparent. No hidden files. No hidden donations. No hidden documents and cooperation.

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Global Online Democracy organization will use the necessary methods to protect the information from potential cyber-attacks that can interfere with the ongoing decision-making process. The worst-case scenario could result in shutting down of the system and permanent damage to data.  

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Blockchain voting technology will be harnessed to reduce voting costs and eliminating corruption all together while establishing an environment of trust and legitimacy around the elections.

 

ARGUMENTATION

 

It is safe to say that our political representatives have failed us.

 

The birth of representative democracy arose from the need to adapt to a large-scale population. In such a system, mass numbers of people can theoretically enjoy control over their representatives and their decision-making. By voting for a representative, people can theoretically affect the political agenda and advance policies, which they think are needed.

 

Representative democracy has many problems that are already visible to all of us: it is infested with personal and financial interests, the promised political agenda is not followed once in office, money is oftentimes governing the system and representatives can be elected according to their financial resources. In most of the democratic countries, the majority of the people have already lost the trust in the system and many of them do not participate in the election.

 

The Global Online Democracy offers direct democracy – there is no reason to use a middle-man. Today’s technology is capable of supporting direct voting and direct decision-making. Take for example Amazon, Google, Alibaba or any other global platform that supports millions of information and financial transactions at any given moment.

 

Problems around the world need to be solved. It is in our best interest that these problems are solved based on correct information, researched, objective, coherent and not linked to anyone’s financial interest. Fortunately, this information exists in the universities, research centres and legislative authorities around the world. The Global Online Democracy model uses these establishments to direct the information to the people to create knowledgeable voting. Furthermore, voters that use the information to learn more about the problem will increase their voting power.

 

 

CORE VALUES

Direct democracy

Many examples from 20th century show us how centralised political power can lead to tragic events. On the other hand, liberal democratic nations show evidence that as the power is in the hands of more people, a better system can be achieved for the majority of people. A system that has better checks and balances keeping the government from getting too powerful in one of its branches. If we advance in that trend, it is safe to assume that online direct voting should be the next step to ensure better equality, more effective decision-making and protection from the tyranny of leaders.

 

Once political representatives are disarmed from the decision-making power and that power is handed over to the mass of people, leaders will not make decisions, but rather execute people’s choices. This, in turn, will result in trust in governance institutions and the elimination of corruption. It will increase political participation and create unlimited global capacity for decision-making.

 

Moreover, the global constitution further enforces equality and equal layers of protection for all people around the world. 

 

Tyranny of the majority or minority

How to create a system that will not become a tool for the majority or the minority to hurt groups in the population? This is an issue of constitutional instruments, designed to reduce the problem and to limit the decisions to areas where the decision can be seen as legitimate even by those who did not support it.

 

The Global Online Democracy offers instruments to battle this. Firstly, a global constitution, created by people, guarantees basic global constitutional rights that will affect all the people in the world, adapted by all regimes.

 

Secondly, the participation of the global community in local and national issues can create protection against the tyranny of the majority and minority groups. Even though voting power decreases when voting on issues geographically far away, voting in large quantities may have a great effect on the voting results.

 

For example, the decision-making power in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is solely in the hands of the citizens within the borders of Israel and the Palestinian territories. What if the global community were to decide – would this issue have been resolved by now?

 

Violence used in protest

Big changes in history were typically initiated by force and violence. Even nowadays many of the protests are violent and their leaders are arrested or jailed to prevent the protest from accelerating. With today’s fast-evolving technology, violence should not take place to make a change.

 

Under the Global Online Democracy, people can demand change by voting online. If the majority of the people vote for a change, the government will execute it.   

 

Knowledgeable decision-making and equality

In the era of Global Online Democracy, the information gathered about each issue is validated and presented equally to all users. The system cannot discriminate based on sex, origin, colour or skin, religion, income or ethnicity etc. It will generate a personal voting unit based on the geographical location and level of knowledge about a particular issue. In time, it will create an era of complex but accurate decision-making and policies that regard different regions, cultures but address humans as equal.

 

DECISION-MAKING CAPACITY

The decision-making capacity offered by the Global Online Democracy model has no limits. Decisions can come from anyone and anywhere in the world, on any matter.

 

Decision Supporting Institutions have the tools and knowledge to bring relevant information in an objective way to the people. The Executive Supporting Institutions are already in place, armed with tools, knowledge and network of institutions to execute the policies. The Regulation and control mechanisms exist to encounter non-compliance from the Executive Supporting Institutions and replace them if needed.

 

All proposed solutions have an execution deadline. The deadline will be set already at the information preparation stage by Decision Supporting Institution assigned for the particular issue. The deadline will be determined after considering all parameters relevant to the issue’s execution plan. 

 

After a decision has been executed, there will be an evaluation to consider whether the goal was achieved or should further changes be considered and implemented.

 

Veto power will be exercised only in rare occasions. It requires 100 verified professors to use their veto power against the offered solutions of a particular issue. In such a case, the process of preparing information and possible solutions will start again with changed deadlines and higher priority status.

 

The model is equipped with the tools to bring an issue from an idea to execution while the decision made is based on knowledge. The most important role lies in the hands of the people – it is the responsibility of the global community to support the decision-making path of the Global Online Democracy, to support the execution of the already made decisions and also the changes it brings.

 

EFFECTIVENESS

 

Sovereignty and authority

The question of effectiveness is a question of sovereignty and authority: how can an institution enjoy sovereignty from the people and have the authority to set policies and demand local, national or global institutions to comply.

 

There are difficult policies to be implemented in the next few decades, for example, taxing carbon worldwide, limiting childbirth, ban on mass destruction nuclear weapons, stopping genocide and dedicating funds for areas of natural disasters. What kind of establishment can restrict the people from bringing children into this world or force a leader of a country to give up the arsenal of weapons without any resistance?

 

The answer is the Global Online Democracy organization. Because the issues to address arise from the people, and people vote to choose the solutions, sovereignty grows organically and in a natural way as the system gains users and the level of engagement increases. This translates to true public support and trust in the system. 

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Subsidiarity

Governments are most effective when the local authorities are empowered to address the issued closest to them. We find that when the main authority in a country gets involved in everyday issues it tends to rob local authorities of their ability and their responsibility to do their job. Decisions should be made in the smallest, lowest and least centralised authority capable of addressing that matter effectively. Subsidiarity enhances local control, political accountability and citizen’s engagement. It places decisions about the commons where they belong, closer to the people whose lives they impact.

 

Global Online Democracy is doing exactly that. It gives the power to the people to decide and change their lives through political involvement in different geographical areas, give the power to the smallest, lowest and least centralized authority that can address the matter effectively.

 

Competitive policy-making

To decide well, people need options and knowledge. To have better solutions to problems the Decision Supporting Institutions will compete for the best solution for issues. For example, cleaning the sea from plastic could be assigned to the Department Of Marine Biology in the Duke University in North Carolina. The department will collect information about the issue, present different narratives, suggest different solutions, possible implications and execution plans. Other marine biology departments around the world can compete for a better solution and execution plan. People will vote for the best solution.

 

Using existing establishments/institutions

Instead of investing funds and resources in creating new establishments, the Global Online Democracy organization uses existing establishments, such as Decision Supporting Institutions and Global Executive Institutions. These institutions already enjoy sovereignty and authority from the people they govern, from different national leaders, and in many cases also from the international community.

 

RESOURCES AND FINANCING

 

Financing the operations of the Global Online Democracy organization is done by donations only. The donations come from people around the world who understand the importance of the global governance system and the importance of keeping the decision-making clean from money-related interests.

 

The financial resources and budgeting of the Global Online Democracy organization and its extensions will be transparent to all. Participatory Budgeting features on the platform allow users to vote for and against financial activities and to suggest ways to be more efficient in financial operations.

 

Operations of the Supporting Institutions will continue to be financed by taxation, as it currently is. To change the financing of a Global Online Democracy model voting will take place.  

 

TRUST AND INSIGHT

 

To make conscious and knowledgeable decisions the process of the decision-making from the start to execution and after must be 100% transparent. The Global Online Democracy model and its supporting institutions are fully transparent in their activities and structure.

 

The Global Online Democracy organization is a worker co-op. The decisions, such as budgets, finances and operative decisions, are made democratically. There is no hierarchy.

 

Global Online Democracy platform is open for criticism and evaluation. Users can base their decisions upon the same information, visible to everyone. Restricted information and confidentiality relate only to the visibility of personal votes and personal information.

 

FLEXIBILITY

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The Global Online Democracy governance model gets its flexibility from how it is built and the way it is structured. It does not only offer a new governing model but it also allows for continuous evaluation and criticism from the public.

 

It presents its institutions, the decision-making and execution process for review in the most transparent way. It is exposed to new suggestions from the global community at all times. Suggested changes will be subject to voting and the organization will change democratically according to the will of the public.

 

Universities’ political departments around the world will question the governance model of the Global Online Democracy organization and offer better-governing structures. The public, in its’ turn, will vote for the best governance changes and the organization will follow their demands.

 

It is important to understand that the Global Online Democracy organization operates in the same manner with Execution Supporting Institutions. It receives a Bill Of Demands and executes it according to the public decisions.

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ACCOUNTABILITY

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The governance plan of the Global Online Democracy model creates an operational flow that eliminates any possible barriers that may slow down or hinder the process. The flow relies on objectivity, transparency and set deadlines. 

 

People are decision-makers, policy-makers and law-makers and are therefore responsible for their collective decisions. They are supported by Global Online Democracy with objective and relevant information. This includes empirical information from research institutes, universities and legislatures, based on researched facts and proven information. 

 

Regulation and control mechanisms are in place to enforce Executive authorities to carry out decisions. Executive authorities are operational only and their personal opinions and preferences do not affect the decision-making process.

 

To ensure that the implemented solutions perform as planned, evaluation, by the institutions that were assigned for this issue, will take place. 

 

When talking about holding the decision-makers accountable for their actions, we talk about judicial authority. Currently, judicial authorities in the liberal world are constructed by the laws made by the legislative authority and follow the rules and regulations in the constitution. In Global Online Democracy model, judicial authority does not take an active part in the decision-making process. However, it is bound to it in the same way with all other issues are subject to the decision-making process. If the community decides there should be a change in the format of the current judicial authority, it will be subject to voting and changed according to the voting results.

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SUMMARY

 

The decision-making capacity offered by this model has no limits. Decisions can come from anyone and anywhere in the world, on any matter. After the execution, changes will be subject to further evaluation and continuous development on the Global Online Democracy platform.

 

Decision supporting institutions have the tools and knowledge to bring relevant information in an objective way to the people. The executive supporting institutions are already in place, armed with tools, knowledge, and a network of institutions to execute the policies. The regulation and control mechanisms exist to encounter non-compliance from the Executive supporting institutions and replace them if needed.

 

The model is equipped with the tools to bring an issue from an idea to execution, based on knowledge. The most important role lies in the hands of the people – it is the responsibility of the global community to embrace the model and the changes it brings all over the world.