YOU AND POLITICAL PARTIES

Political Democracy
The decentralisation of policy in accordance with the collective will of the people, allows the individual to influence the social organisations and social systems which have been established to serve the interests of the individual members of society. With true political democracy leading to the establishment of economic democracy, society would be structured in such a way as to provide individual members of society in association with a realisation of the inherent belief that in association they can obtain what they want.

Political Democracy requires that the individual members of society having agreed on an objective, have control of policy and possess the sanction whereby their policies will be put into effect. It is the will of the people who should have the constitutional right to exercise sovereignty in the area of government, which should prevail. This control does not reside in the ballot-box. On the contrary, it is necessary for a mechanism to exist to provide the individual members of society with the ability to enforce their sanction to ensure that their will, will prevail. Representatives of the electors must be representatives.

Ballot-Box Democracy
The claim that the ballot-box voting system provides a democratic system is contained in the belief that;

(a) Rule by the alleged majority is democracy. (Except in very rare occasions, most political parties receive less than 50% of the total votes.)

(b) By casting a vote at an election provides the individual with control over policy.

If we accept the definition of democracy as "the right to atrophy a function by contracting out" , it will readily be seen that 'ballot-box democracy' does not and cannot provide this requirement. By accepting the results of a ballot-box election, the individual elector has disenfranchised himself or herself from control of policy and voted for centalisation of power.

It effectively substitutes means for ends. Ballot-box democracy thus is incompatible with Social Credit because it does not provide for control of policy, leads to centralisation of power, regards the group ideal as more important than the individual - thus collectivism, and finally totalitarianism and internationalism. These are absolutely incompatible with Social Credit.

In his Nature of Democracy C.H. Douglas made the following observations:

"In order to understand...present democracy it is necessary to understand its nature, what it can do from its nature, and what it cannot do. The literal meaning of the word is of course, 'rule by the people', but I should prefer to call it the will of the people. It is not rule by majority, an important distinction to note.

Now 'the people' is a collective term which, in order to make its nature clearer, may be translated as 'the mob'. I am not substituting what may appear to be a derogatory word for one which appears to be more respectable, with a view to expressing contempt for the population considered collectively, but because a good deal of attention has been devoted to the psychology of mobs, and the conclusion, where they are sound, are obviously applicable to democracy. The outstanding feature of a mob is that it does not reason, or certainly does not reason effectively. Its conclusions as based upon reason can be stated, with confidence, to be invariably wrong. A mob feels, it does not think, and consequently by whatever mechanism we represent a mob we can represent only a desire, not a technique. It is, of course, possible to contend that the desires of a mob are always or frequently wrong.

"It is, however, quite certain that desire, emotion or feeling, however you wish to phrase it, is plastic and possesses from its nature a strong desire to clothe itself in forms, so that if a mob shouts 'We want food and shelter' it is easy to get it to translate into a cry 'We want work' which is, of course, not at all the same thing. We have evolved a mechanism of election which is alleged to be for the purpose of making the will of the mob evident. But the most cursory examination of the slogans on which elections are fought is sufficient to show that the machinery has been completely perverted. We elect Parliamentary representatives at the present time to pass laws of a highly technical nature, not to ensure that certain results are achieved.

"As a result of this, not merely in this country but everywhere in the world, ... we are witnessing a set of second-rate experts in the seat of governments ineffectively endeavouring to give technical directions to set of first-rate experts who are actually carrying on the functions by which our society live. Now I have no doubt whatever that the select group of international financiers who desire to rivet the rule of finance upon the world are observing this process with complete satisfaction, and they are using the situation which they themselves have brought about, and with which governments are ineffectively meddling, to support the idea that the whole cause of the trouble is the meddling in business of governments and government officials who do not understand business. They are using this argument most effectively as an argument for sweeping away that control over their own destinies which peoples, or, if you prefer it, mobs, were in processing of attaining through centuries, and substituting a dictatorship which will enthrone an international oligarchy permanently."

The evidence for this process is available in the development of the European Union, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that will without doubt stretch into South America, and of course the Australia Pacific Economic Community (APEC). Ultimately each of these super blocks can be combined and as the development of the European 'unelected' Parliament now exists, so will other such Parliaments have to be formed removing control of policy from electors completely.

YOU AND YOUR VOTING

People are willing to believe that by casting a vote in an election held every three or five years that they have control over policy. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are asked to vote for a candidate chosen by a political party, or an independent who has chosen to run on his or her own volition. None of these candidates have been chosen by the people. In addition the policy proposals put forward by candidates are either those espoused by the political parties, or the independent candidate .None are proposing policies demanded by the electorate.

Where voting is not compulsory a candidate may be elected on a minority vote only of those who support the policies put forward by that particular party or candidate. In Australia, it is claimed that there exists compulsory voting. This is a misnomer. Each voter is expected to attend the polling booth and have his or her name crossed off the electoral roll. Whether or not a vote is cast, or whether the ballot paper is put in the box, or eaten or used for any other purpose is not checked. Where a ballot paper is marked, "None of the candidates are acceptable", this is counted as informal and not included in the election process. Even if 80% of the electorate so marked their paper a candidate could be elected by obtaining a majority of the balance of recorded votes.

To have any control over elections, voters must have a sanction that can be used to ensure their representative carry out their will, i.e., their policy. This means having the power to replace one representative by another if necessary.

YOU AND YOUR POLITICAL REPRESENTATIVE

A political representative must be exactly what term designates. A representative. He or she must represent you, the elector in the administration of your affairs together with other members of the electorate. He or she is not, or should not be a representative for vested interests such as political parties. A true democracy would reflect the 'will of the majority'. It is not, as claimed by political parties 'rule by majority' which is why they continue to promote what is termed 'ballot-box' democracy, which is in effect a simple numbers game. The parties decide policy and then attempt to gain sufficient support by propaganda and promises to gain a majority in numbers elected so that they can carry out their policies.

YOU AND THE GOVERNMENT

A government is not elected. A number of people are elected and the political party that obtains the majority of elected seats forms a government. It is the requirement for freedom of an increasing majority of individual members of society, to utilise the facilities available to them to obtain the results they require from their elected representatives. In the sphere of government it is the ability or the availability of those sanctions that will ensure that those elected who form the government will provide the results desired by the people.

It is in the area of government that policies are carried into effect. It is through the control by government over Administration that policies are enacted. It is the responsibility of governments to represent the wishes of the electorate.

The genuine function of government is not to pass a never-ending stream of laws for the purpose of controlling individuals, but to lay down simple rules under which individuals can live their lives - so long as they do not interfere with other individuals. It is the responsibility of government to demand from the Administration (i.e. the experts) the results that are required by the electorate.

In his Tragedy of Human Effort, C.H. Douglas writes:

"To understand what I believe to be the only effective strategy to be pursued, we have, first of all, to recognise that though we do beyond question, possess the rough machinery of democracy, we do not use it. It is not democracy of any conceivable kind to hold an election at regular or irregular intervals for the purpose of deciding by ballot whether you will be shot or boiled in oil. It is not democracy of any conceivable kind to hold an election upon any subject requiring technical information and education. Nothing could be more fantastic, for instance, than to hold an election on say, whether aeroplanes or airships would be better for defence, or for any other purpose. The first requisite of a political democracy is that its operation shall be confined to objectives, not to methods".

The same argument may be applied in having an election based upon whether or not there should be a VAT or GST system.

A distinctive feature of the political system which has evolved in what is referred to as the Democratic Parliamentary System, is the belief by those who attain power in becoming elected under that system, is that they have supreme power. This is the so-called Sovereignty of Parliament. This applies to both the Westminster System in a Constitutional Monarchy or a Republic. Sovereignty should be with the people not the government.

YOU AND YOUR RIGHTS

Contrary to popular belief, the physical reality regarding rights differs to the ideas that people claim. A moments thought will reveal that the only rights that people have are those they can sustain. This implies the availability of sanctions.

YOU AND DEMOCRACY

The first thing necessary in any discussion on democracy is to establish exactly what is meant by the word. (see You and political parties - Ballot-Box Democracy). Political Democracy requires electors to have control of policy and the sanctions to ensure the policies will be carried out. Economic Democracy requires that consumers have control over production and sufficient purchasing power to ensure effective demand. Ballot-Box "democracy" is not democracy. It embodies both collectivism and totalitarianism because it disenfranchises the individual elector from having control over policy.