SOVEREIGN COMMUNITIES
NO HOLDS BARRED (047) December 29, 2009
By Ike Señeres
SOVEREIGN COMMUNITIES
According to Wikipedia, Athenian democracy was developed in the Greek city-state of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica. This type of democracy was characterized by the direct participation of all citizens in the affairs of the city-state. Instead of electing representatives to speak on their behalf, the citizens voted on their own right, thus eliminating the need for a congress or a senate.
Believe it or not, the technology is now here to enable cities and states to go back to the Athenian democracy model. I would guess that the senates of the city-states cam about when the size of the population made it impractical to resort to direct voting, considering how unmanageable that would be. Fast forward to the present times, the technology is now here to manage the direct participation of an infinite number of voters on any question of law or governance. Are we ready to go back to this model?
This idea may sound preposterous on first hearing, but in a manner of speaking, any form of election whether it is manual or automated is actually an exercise in direct voting. The only difference in this comparison is that the elections are held only every four years or so, because of the complexity of the process, and because of the impracticality of asking all citizens about referendum issues on a daily basis, at least in theory.
When I chaired the modernization committee of the COMELEC many years ago, I recommended in my final report to the Commission and the Senate that the best and most ideal way of modernizing the elections is to enable the people to vote in the same way as they do business with the bank. In simple language, this would mean voting through a teller, through an automated teller machine (ATM), via a cell phone (mobile banking), via a call center (phone banking) and via the internet (online banking).
To go even further, I also said in my report that the existing infrastructure of the banks could be used for election purposes, highlighting the fact that if this approach is taken, there would be no need to spend on new infra. I said that there should be no problem about security, because it is even more challenging to secure money than to secure the votes.
It may take a long time before Athenian democracy comes back, or it may never happen at all. With or without it however, the technologies to give or send feedback to the elected representatives about how or what the people feel or think already exist, so why don’t we use these technologies to improve or upgrade our existing democracy?
At the risk of sounding sarcastic, I would say that the people get what they deserve. True enough, democracy is the voice of the majority, so there is nothing that we could do if the majority of the people would choose to remain silent about the poor quality of governance that they are getting, or if they choose to elect candidates who are popular but are unable to make good laws or deliver good public services.
The fact that the Greek city-states existed and functioned very well before the broader Greek nation state emerged is solid proof enough that even in these present times, our local cities and municipalities could operate and survive on their own without depending so much on the broader national government. Indeed, sovereignty is a political term, but that not mean that the local communities could not become economically independent.
Is it possible to bring about sovereign communities in the Philippine setting? I think so, but I also think that the key to this is the direct participation of all citizens in day to day governance, in a way that would make them take their own destiny in their own hands. How do we make this happen?
As it is now, many cities and municipalities have already put up their own websites, and some have activated their own online feedback boards. I just do not know how many mayors are reading the feedbacks sent in, but this is already a good start. But how about using mobile messaging also?
Considering the fact that there are more cell phone users than Internet users, I think that it is about time that the cities and municipalities should put up their own short messaging service (SMS) servers, and this is not a very difficult thing to do. I have been using Text Genie, locally developed software for eight years now, and it works perfectly for me.
Watch my business show 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com
By Ike Señeres
SOVEREIGN COMMUNITIES
According to Wikipedia, Athenian democracy was developed in the Greek city-state of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica. This type of democracy was characterized by the direct participation of all citizens in the affairs of the city-state. Instead of electing representatives to speak on their behalf, the citizens voted on their own right, thus eliminating the need for a congress or a senate.
Believe it or not, the technology is now here to enable cities and states to go back to the Athenian democracy model. I would guess that the senates of the city-states cam about when the size of the population made it impractical to resort to direct voting, considering how unmanageable that would be. Fast forward to the present times, the technology is now here to manage the direct participation of an infinite number of voters on any question of law or governance. Are we ready to go back to this model?
This idea may sound preposterous on first hearing, but in a manner of speaking, any form of election whether it is manual or automated is actually an exercise in direct voting. The only difference in this comparison is that the elections are held only every four years or so, because of the complexity of the process, and because of the impracticality of asking all citizens about referendum issues on a daily basis, at least in theory.
When I chaired the modernization committee of the COMELEC many years ago, I recommended in my final report to the Commission and the Senate that the best and most ideal way of modernizing the elections is to enable the people to vote in the same way as they do business with the bank. In simple language, this would mean voting through a teller, through an automated teller machine (ATM), via a cell phone (mobile banking), via a call center (phone banking) and via the internet (online banking).
To go even further, I also said in my report that the existing infrastructure of the banks could be used for election purposes, highlighting the fact that if this approach is taken, there would be no need to spend on new infra. I said that there should be no problem about security, because it is even more challenging to secure money than to secure the votes.
It may take a long time before Athenian democracy comes back, or it may never happen at all. With or without it however, the technologies to give or send feedback to the elected representatives about how or what the people feel or think already exist, so why don’t we use these technologies to improve or upgrade our existing democracy?
At the risk of sounding sarcastic, I would say that the people get what they deserve. True enough, democracy is the voice of the majority, so there is nothing that we could do if the majority of the people would choose to remain silent about the poor quality of governance that they are getting, or if they choose to elect candidates who are popular but are unable to make good laws or deliver good public services.
The fact that the Greek city-states existed and functioned very well before the broader Greek nation state emerged is solid proof enough that even in these present times, our local cities and municipalities could operate and survive on their own without depending so much on the broader national government. Indeed, sovereignty is a political term, but that not mean that the local communities could not become economically independent.
Is it possible to bring about sovereign communities in the Philippine setting? I think so, but I also think that the key to this is the direct participation of all citizens in day to day governance, in a way that would make them take their own destiny in their own hands. How do we make this happen?
As it is now, many cities and municipalities have already put up their own websites, and some have activated their own online feedback boards. I just do not know how many mayors are reading the feedbacks sent in, but this is already a good start. But how about using mobile messaging also?
Considering the fact that there are more cell phone users than Internet users, I think that it is about time that the cities and municipalities should put up their own short messaging service (SMS) servers, and this is not a very difficult thing to do. I have been using Text Genie, locally developed software for eight years now, and it works perfectly for me.
Watch my business show 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com
posted by Ike Señeres at 6:11 PM
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