[P2P-F] Political Commons

Tue Oct 18 07:15:23 CEST 2011

Dear Leif,

I was discussing this as a possible project for 2012-2015, with  Elliot
Bulmer <https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=670510454>, the idea was to
study, one each year, 1) historical forms of democracy ; 2) current emergent
forms (peer governance included) 3) proposals for the future

I can only talk about this in detail after mid-december as I'll be travelling
most of the fall ..

we could open a conceptual page on the wiki, to trash out ideas and sources,

I do want this to be an 'open' discussion, i.e. without preconceived answer
up front,

Michel

On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 7:12 AM, Leif Olsen <leif_thomas_olsen at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Dear Michel,
>
> I can confirm that very few people I met, if any, have responded to my
> ideas with a recognizing smile. Although Habermas advocated the idea of a
> 'Public Sphere' that influence policymaking - albeit mainly indirectly - and
> Colin Ball (a former Secretary General of the Commonwealth Foundation)
> argued in favor of a 'People's Chamber' in Parliament (just like the House
> of Commons was once introduced to balance the House of Lords), and 'Critical
> Communitarism' is a philosophy that at least targets this thorny issue,
> has neither the establishment nor the anti-establishment developed any
> creative thinking in this field.
>
> If you are interested in studying this issue (next year and onwards),
> I suggest we do it together. I have done quite a lot of preliminary work on
> this, and you have the 'channels'. Our coordinated efforts to open up the
> virtually 'holy' institution of the parliament to public scrutiny and debate
> would be refreshing.
>
> Whould you agree?
>
> Cheers
> / Leif
>
>
>  *From:* Michel Bauwens <michel at p2pfoundation.net>
> *To:* Leif Olsen <leif_thomas_olsen at yahoo.com>
> *Cc:* p2p-foundation <p2p-foundation at lists.ourproject.org>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, October 18, 2011 2:28 AM
> *Subject:* Re: Political Commons
>
> Dea r Leif,
>
> I hope you don't mind I'm sha ring this with ou r list,
>
> this may not be an a rea I have thought t rue sufficiently,
>
> ve ry gene rally, I've always thought that we should make su re we have plu
> ralistic fo rms of democ racy, and not just one fo rum,
>
> fo r example, now, ou r  rep resentative mechanisms have been hijacked,
> while in  russia, it was the councils ..  so the political commons itself
> could not be just one institution, but a plu rality, keeping each othe r in
> balance and making powe r accumulations mo re difficult
>
> we also have different domains, the territorial, the places where we work
> and study, and our cultural institutions (which may be a-territorial), and
> may require their own institutions ..
>
> I was intending to spend 3 years, as of January 2012, to study democratic
> forms
>
> On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 6:47 PM, Leif Olsen <leif_thomas_olsen at yahoo.com>wrote:
>
>  Dear Michel,
>
> Coming back to our exchange a while ago, I wonder if you can give me some
> links to where you elaborate on 'political commons' - as compared to
> 'commons' from an ownership point of view. By this I mean 'how' this third
> force (i.e. non-private / non-state) shall engage in the political
> arena. Since politics is an area of debate and decisionmaking that affects
> *all* other aspects of society too, I see a need to establish a forum - a
>  'politcal commons' if you so wish - where such (i.e. non-private /
> non-state) interests can be represented. I call this 'Reference
> Parliaments', in which I see a significant philosophical overlap with the
> ideas you promote.
>
> Nevertheless, I cannot really see from your writing 'how' you expect this
> third force to be politically represented. Can you elaborate on this?
>
> Cheers
> /Thomas
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
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>
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>
>
>
>

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