[P2P-F] definitions of ( hybrid networked ) modes of governance and, economics

Thu Mar 3 12:35:49 CET 2011

Democracy doesn't mean rule of the majority. Etymologically its meaning 
is the rule of the people. While common convention in representative 
democracies is that this means majority rules, this is only one kind of 
democratic system, and the one which historically was considered to be 
'weak' democracy as allowing people to vote for a representative once 
every four or five years gives the people only a small degree of power 
to rule themselves.

This was contrasted with 'strong' or direct forms of democracy where 
either the people were able to either manage their affairs without the 
need for representatives to mediate for them, or those representatives 
were only temporary and were able to be recalled at any time if people 
were unhappy with their actions.

Consequently direct democracy has largely been associated with anarchist 
leaning groups, such as social centres, squats and co-ops. Frequently 
these groups opt to make decisions by consensus rather than majority 
based decisions as this includes all participants in a meaningful way 
and allows them to voice their objections to ideas rather than placing 
them within an outvoted (and thus silenced) minority.

On 03/03/2011 06:06, p2p-foundation-request at lists.ourproject.org wrote:
> From: Dante-Gabryell Monson<dante.monson at gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 9:05 AM
> Subject: definitions of ( hybrid networked ) modes of governance and
> economics
> To:
>
>
> In the following excerpt, starting at 378 seconds ( already marked in link
> ),
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBBqM-ajoGI#t=378s
>
> it states the use of polling to inform "democracy" ( or, so called,
> "representative democracy" ),
> from information coming from a population that can make "rational"
> decisions.
>
> I wonder how one would call direct action , transactions , and contracts
> made by the people without a need for a representative, but with the
> possibility for proxy voting which can be changed at any time in case one
> would want others to take decisions for us instead of taking them oneself (
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_voting  ) .
>
> How would such form of economics and governance be called, when enabled in
> hybrid forms of relational dynamics ?
>
> I guess not "direct democracy", as democracy is from the rule of the
> majority.
>
> I guess "Panocracy" ?
>
> http://p2pfoundation.net/Panocracy
>
> A principle underlying systems of organisation that asserts that everyone
> has the right to make and act on decisions about things that affect them and
> that no one else has the right to take that away from them.
>
> or "Panarchy" ?
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panarchy
>
> *?an inclusive, universal system of governance in which all may participate
> meaningfully."*