Uncategorized – Civil Democracy

Stopping climate change needs a united voice of civil society

Posted on July 24, 2024 - 10:49 am by admin

Stopping climate change demands a bundled voice of global civil society – and that means it needs Civil democracy. Read here the five steps why this is necessary – and if you want to support to stop climate change, continue with links below.

Stopping climate change demands a change in life styles around the world. It is not something that can be done by isolated elite action, it needs decisions based on coordinated insight and decisions for coordinated action by all world citizens.
Stopping climate change demands a lot of knowledge. As acquiring knowledge takes time, a division of labor is needed between individuals who acquire knowledge, form political actors, and develop policy positions together, and individuals who perceive and trust these political actors to benefit from their knowledge. Such political actors exist, and with regards to stopping climate change, exist mostly in the form of environmental NGOs.
Stopping climate change demands that these two be brought together: We need the participation of individuals and of environmental NGOs in making the decisions that are necessary to bring world society onto the path to sustainability.

In the past, this participation has taken the informal form of NGO consultations. In Rio 1992, this was a step forward. But in Madrid 2019 (and, to be honest, much earlier) it was clear that this model was outdated. Governments around the world decided to concentrate on domestic short-run issues, and the global civil society could do nothing more than lament.

The reason is that global civil society has so far no institutions that allow it to concentrate its diversity into a common voice. Only national governments can claim to represent their societies. Civil society organisations do only stand for themselves, irrespective of the fact that are trusted by millions of world citizens. Because they cannot convincingly show that trust.

To stop climate change, world society needs a power that is the bundled voice of its responsible citizens. To stop climate change, world citizens need to understand that they are truly responsible, and this is done best through giving them responsibility.
To stop climate change, world society needs to include its civil society organisations in the formation of that voice. Here are the actors that have the knowledge and the motivation to influence their fellow citizens.

Fighting financial corruption with Civil democracy

Posted on March 28, 2024 - 1:13 pm by admin

(Credit: Photo presented on Wednesday July 8, 2009 as court evidence and provided by the U.S. Attorney’s office shows an unidentified FBI agent holding contents seized on Aug. 3, 2005 from the freezer of the Washington home of then-Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. Jurors in the bribery trial of former Rep. William Jefferson, a Democrat who represented parts of New Orleans until losing his re-election bid last year, saw photos Wednesday of the infamous frozen cash, recovered in August 2005. It was wrapped in $10,000 increments and concealed in boxes of Pillsbury pie crust and Boca burgers. Prosecutors allege that Jefferson received more than $400,000 in bribes and sought millions more in exchange for using his influence to broker business deals in Africa, Jefferson’s lawyers have argued it is not illegal for Jefferson to receive payment for actions as a private business consultant. U.S. Attorney’s office/wikipedia.org)

Financial corruption in politics is a significant challenge today. Historically, intertwining money and power has often led to ethical breaches and undermined democratic principles and public trust. Today, financial corruption persists in various forms, from campaign finance loopholes over revolving doors between government and industry to offshore tax havens that obscure beneficiaries of political transactions. Financial corruption erodes the foundations of democracy. Power of money equals powerlessness of citizens. Trust in democratic institutions diminishes as citizens perceive their representatives as beholden to special interests rather than the common good. Moreover, corruption fosters a culture of impunity, undermining the rule of law and breeding cynicism among the populace.

Current financial corruption signals that the old democratic system of partitioning representation is no longer working. However, is not a cause but an effect.

As long as people stood united in groups behind parties and politicians, they gave them very clear mandates. As this is no longer the case, parties and politicians have less information about what their voters want and more discretionary freedom, and that opens a much greater door for lobbyists.

Using Civil democracy gives responsibility to citizens and civil society organizations. As we know, people can be corrupted, too. But in giving ongoing responsibility to them, Civil democracy incentivizes to train their future orientation, and that decreases their corruptability. And as for the new representative actors, civil society organizations and individual open actors, three things can be said. First, that are fallible humans, as well, so misconduct cannot be excluded. But second, to bribe them will be not that efficient as bribing politicians today because none of them will have the discretionary power that parties and politicians currently hold. And third, as Civil democracy unfolds, we will have codes of conduct with regards to accepting financial support and ways to easily inform voters which open actors agreed to these codes of conduct, and sanctions if they are violated. Criminal behavior from time to time is a perennial phenomenon, but these institutional precautions shall mostly diminish the current incidence of financial corruption.

Help addressing foundations

Posted on August 24, 2023 - 11:57 am by admin

Are you used in addressing foundations? Are you yourself working for a foundation, or in contact with one? There are many wealthy individuals who have set up foundations working for the aims Civil democracy is able to address. So far, our approach is always too large to fit in existing funding schemes. But you may be able to change that? Write me directly under hanno.scholtz@civil-democracy.org, we are happy to hear from you!

Two Steps to Modernity: What Crises, Terror, and Other Parallels Tell for Understanding the 20th and Shaping the 21st Century

Posted on July 20, 2023 - 5:35 am by admin

In the 2020s and the 1940s, two global crises see their climax and solution. This conclusion results from analysing a current dejàvu: Terror started a war in 2001 as it did in 1914. Likewise are economic crises, globalizations and democratizations, increasing inequalities and shifts in the global resource distribution recent phenomena with parallels a century ago. This book shows: this is no coincidence. It is a key for understanding world history from the 19th to the 21st century, and shaping it to the better.

Between 2025 and 2035, institutional innovations bring a climax of crises as long as innovations in organizations are not yet matched on the macro level, and their solution when they finally do. In the current second transition of modernity, modern interaction principles have been introduced within organizations since 1968, but the general acceptance of individualized responsible linkages in democracy and career development as base for regained stability and prosperity still stands out.

This book presents the analytical base of why Civil democracy is needed, in a broader picture that gives overviews over important strands of sociology unified in one single argument.