Direct Democracy in Russian, in conscience - the future of Russia

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Scientists of the International Academy of Informatization (MAI), together with analysts of the Council of Communities of the Russian Zemsky Movement, investigated the historical experience, types, traditions of direct democracy that took place at different times on the territory of the Russian state and other countries and, as a result, developed the principles, structure, and foundations of organizing direct democracy in conditions of territorial communities, traditional for Russia.

RUSSIAN IDEA

They write about the Russian idea, about the idea of a new Russia. Before thinking about an idea that would contribute to the revival of Russia, it is necessary to determine the meaning and function of ideas in human life. Then it will be possible to make a selection of those ideas that will be suitable for solving the posed problem of Russia's survival. What is an idea? Let's approach the answer to this question from the standpoint not of philosophy, but of the psychology of behavior.

An idea is, first of all, a program of some behavior, in the broadest sense. One and the same idea can exist in everyday consciousness as a principle that provides the rules of everyday behavior. Then it takes on the form of social stereotypes, moral maxims, judgments of common sense and worldly wisdom, as well as proverbs and sayings. It can take the form of both religious beliefs, dogmas, myths, and scientific theories. Those operating programs of behavior that are not realized by a person are usually not called ideas. A theoretical idea creates the possibility of understanding and organizing knowledge into a system. It is a scientist's mental behavior program that provides insight, foresight, and organization of facts. Scientific theories are built on it. For example, the idea of atomism covertly existed for almost a millennium, until in the last century it formed the basis of the molecular kinetic theory of heat. And before that, physicists made use of such meager concepts as caloric and phlogiston. In politics and state thinking, it manifests itself in the idea of pluralism, with the help of which the centralized states of our time are crushed.

A practical idea acts as a program of behavior aimed at solving life problems, ranging from the idea of making soup and how to create a financial pyramid. The idea organizes the behavior, information, mental energy of a person for its implementation. The idea itself is a kind of disembodied informational formation that has the ability to be activated only when people appear who share this idea. Then the idea acts through the behavior of people.

When they talk about a new idea of Russia, they are looking for in the field of spiritual subjects. Emphasis is placed on the idea of God. It is believed that Orthodoxy will revive Russia. The idea of God is the core that provides orientation in the world and creates ways of worshiping a supreme being. It is also the foundation of conscience. The idea of worshiping God alone is to appease his wickedness and receive protection through sacrifices. The Aztecs shared the idea that they could gain the favor of their God only by slaughtering about fifty thousand people a year on the altar. Abraham refused to cut his son's throat, replacing the sacrifice with a lamb. In doing so, he changed the worship program and made the idea of God less bloodthirsty. The bloodthirstiness of sacrifice in Christianity was smoothed out in the fact that God himself sacrificed his son so that people would not sin, remembering that Jesus was sacrificed and suffered for their sins in order for them to lead a sinless life. And if they sin, they know that they are hurting the innocent son of God. In practice, this is manifested in the fact that some Russian landowners, for the sins and transgressions of the barchuk, flogged the boy with whom this barchuk was playing. The lord's son had to suffer an empathic experience of the pain that a friend, wriggling under the whip, receives and did not commit any further misconduct.

So, the Christian God introduced through his representative into people the idea of worshiping himself through mercy and love, but for this he himself had to sacrifice his son and thereby quenched his thirst for sacrifice forever. "I do not want sacrifice, but love." The idea of a person's love for a person as a means of controlling a person's behavior and his survival is quite common, but at the same time they do not notice that the manifestations of the energy of love depend on other ideas as well. For example, combining it with the idea of racial superiority or with the idea of class struggle, love grows fascism and the practice of communism. After all, most wars are waged not out of the innate aggressiveness and malice of a person, but to protect loved ones and loved ones from the enemy. In racketeering, love for the victim, for the hostage is combined with a respectable and godly idea of making a profit. This means that love in itself cannot be a means of reviving a person, and even more so a state, since the result depends on what idea is associated with love.

POWER IDEAS

The legal idea provides people with the idea of social justice and contributes not only to fair or unjust behavior, but also through the idea of power influences the organization of social governance. After all, power can exist only if people who rule and obey the power share this idea of power. There are various ideas of power from autocracy to direct democracy with different shades and variations. Some believe that the monarchist idea is exactly in line with the renewed Russia.

So, there is a huge variety of ideas, among which it will be necessary to choose one that could, ultimately, become the basis for other ideas and lead to the revival of a new Russia. It should probably be borne in mind that philosophers do not create ideas, but only express them, and make them understandable for people. The task of the philosopher is to see ideas in life and in the everyday thinking of people and to examine them for their suitability for cultivation and dissemination.

Let's take a look at some of them. The communist manifesto developed the idea of the eternal struggle between rich and poor, evil and good, which should lead, ultimately, through the revolution, to the triumph of good and the prosperity of mankind. This idea of the struggle of opposites in a version convenient for the revolution was first clearly formulated in the teachings of the preacher Mani, according to which the struggle between the God of good and the God of Evil must end with the victory of the former and people must contribute to this. Manichaeism was qualified by the church fathers as a bloodthirsty idea and condemned as heresy as early as the second century. But ideas change their shape. Ahriman becomes the Prince of this world and perfectly adapts to the religion of love.

Since in Marxism this idea took on a scientific form, then under the conditions of the struggle between religion and science, the idea of the struggle of opposites as a driving force of progress spread unhindered, especially among the intelligentsia, since, under the influence of the scientific worldview, there was no immunity against Manichaeism. At first, people who shared this idea organized themselves into a party, and then it took possession of the masses. We know what came of it. Any idea has logical connections with other ideas that must correspond to it.

The Manichean idea of the struggle of opposites is in good harmony with the idea of a forced, violent change in people's behavior so that good will triumph. " Good must have strong fists". The idea of violence in managing people for their own good prevails and becomes the core of the idea of power: "the state is an apparatus of violence." The rule of law in the light of this idea only streamlines the function of violence and nothing more.

In this situation, the idea is nonviolent governance human behavior seems utopian and is not in demand. Modern man does not share the idea of a nonviolent state, since he considers such a state impossible, although in everyday life people quite often practice nonviolent control of a person's behavior, based on taking into account his desires and interests. If I like my job, then I don’t need to be forced into it. If I do not like work, then I am forced to it today by the need to earn money for food and life, and earlier, in slavery, by an overseer with a whip. Thus, in everyday life, the desire to work makes me free from compulsion to this work and, accordingly, from violence. But only in everyday life.

Modern man sharply separates the state from his life. If Aristotle defined the state as "communication for the good of all", then a modern person is convinced that the state cannot serve everyone, but creates good only for a part of citizens who can seize the state, endowing people who serve this part of citizens with state functions.

If you think about these functions, there are several: the function of overseeing that people, in pursuit of their goals and satisfy their needs, comply with the rules that are adopted in this community, reward good citizens and punish those who do not comply with these rules.

IDEA OF A NON-Violent State

The idea of a nonviolent state seems absurd until we flesh it out. Let's try to apply the concepts of coercion and non-violence to specific behavior and a specific person. Let's take a look at a separate behavior. Taxes are a public matter. To compel citizens to pay taxes, a tax inspectorate and police have been created and legal punitive measures have been taken. This is a compulsory measure, since citizens do not want to pay taxes, and the state creates an expensive apparatus of violence to collect taxes. The need for violence and coercion would disappear completely if the vast majority of citizens were willing to pay taxes. But today it seems like a utopia simply because the idea of voluntary payment of taxes is not shared by the majority of citizens. However, it is legitimate to pose the question: "In what case would citizens voluntarily, by common consent, if they wish, contribute money for public needs? For example, for education, maintaining health, order, catching criminals, maintaining disabled people, old people and old women, and raising and paying labor of officials ". The answer will be simple: if these citizens constitute a small and visible community, if they have agreed to these contributions, and if these contributions calm their consciences; moreover, they know for sure that money is not being stolen and that the calculation of expenses has been made correctly. And if we add to this the special respect enjoyed by those who make contributions in excess of the agreed upon, then we will get an accurate scheme of voluntary payment of taxes at will.

This state form can be referred to as direct democracy. Today it is perceived as a utopia, in fact, recently in the 16th-18th centuries the northern regions of Russia lived according to this scheme. What should be the idea of a new Russia?

THE IDEA OF DIRECT POPULATION

The idea of direct democracy or direct democracy, as opposed to representative democracy, should become the main idea of New Russia.

But this is impossible, the reader thinks. “After all, an idea only becomes a material force when it is widespread and takes possession of the masses. And today no one has heard of direct democracy. No politician has this idea in his repertoire! Indeed, politicians do not discuss the idea of direct democracy. They cannot think about it, since they themselves are a product of representative democracy. A common mistake is the idea that the power of an idea is in its pervasiveness. Atomistic ideas in science at the beginning of the 19th century divided units that were defamed, and one of them, Boltzmann, committed suicide, unable to withstand the moral terror of scientists. And today the atomistic idea is the basis of scientific thinking. So, the quality of an idea, its truth is determined by its not prevalence in the minds but whether it makes life more efficient.”The widespread presence of an idea does not indicate its vitality or truth.

For example, the idea of improving lives by electing good legislators and a good president is common, but it doesn't work. People gradually become convinced of her weakness, which is manifested in the fact that they refuse to vote. People already know that you can choose a very talented, fair and brilliant person, but he will quickly deteriorate, playing by the rules of the game of representative democracy. This indicates a deep crisis in the idea of representative democracy. Representative democracy has outlived its usefulness. Today it is no longer a democracy. It has become a means, in the best possible way, ensuring the domination of an insignificant number of representatives of the world finance capital over the peoples. It is in representative democracy, through the electoral system and parliamentarism, which legitimizes bribery in the form of lobbying, that an unusually effective enrichment formula is implemented: " money - power - money " … Keeping the rules of the game of representative democracy, we reproduce the environment and conditions for the complete domination of world and Russian finance capital over the peoples of Russia. This is obvious to everyone and needs no proof. One has only to ask oneself: "How much does it cost to elect a deputy or a president?" The candidate does not have this money, and he receives it during the election campaign and must return it, providing super-profits to sponsors.

Only in the system of direct democracy will each citizen of Russia acquire a real, and not a declared, opportunity to effectively influence the management of their territory and take responsibility for the decisions made. Only in this system is the alienation of power from the citizen practically, and not declarative, eliminated

Just as no one else can drink, eat, rest instead of me - all this I have to do for myself - similarly, I cannot transfer power to another, that is, give the right to make decisions about me and my lifestyle to another person, no matter how good he seems to me.

Real power is inalienable from the citizen. Only by creating a system of direct democracy, a citizen will cease to transfer power to representatives, but will use it himself.

CAN REVIVAL TIPS?

After all, councils arose as a form of direct democracy. The revival of soviets in the form of a representative democracy with its electoral system will lead to the unlimited domination of financial and other capital in the country from top to bottom through the mechanism of local self-government. What is happening today. The practice of elections - shameless and impudent, open bribery of votes against the background of the destruction of universal human values - has become a common phenomenon with which a person has almost become accustomed.

So, soviets emerged as a form of direct democracy. However, in the struggle for power, the Bolshevik Party turned the soviets into one of the driving belts for the rule of one party. The actually functioning councils acquired the outward form of representative democracy, but in fact were the driving belt of the power of the party nomenklatura. At the same time, direct democracy was destroyed.

That is why the crackdown on the Soviets in October 1993 was easy. The people did not rise to defend the Soviets, and it was not difficult for the new government to replace them with bureaucratic governing bodies. The Soviets tried to defend only people who were in power, and not ordinary citizens. The Soviets could satisfactorily ensure self-government within certain limits with the constant control of one party, which curbed corruption, made it possible, to some extent, to take into account the interests of the population and territories. People felt that they have power, whatever it is, and that to some extent solves local problems.

Now the local government is in the hands of the bureaucracy. This maintains the nostalgia for the Soviets. But the citizens of Russia did not consider the councils to be organs of direct democracy, since the question of who would sit on the Council was decided in the offices of the Party.

A bit of history: each nation in the development of its statehood experienced a long period of direct democracy. All regional cities of Kievan Rus had organs of direct democracy in the form of the People's Assembly, veche. Princes were invited to rule, and as such were only users of power, and not bearers of it. They ruled by contract. The true holders of power were the citizens of the community. Another thing is when the princes managed to completely seize power, as was done in the Moscow principality with the help of the Golden Horde. However, this was not a natural, but a deformed development.

With the growth of states, direct democracy became impossible for the following reasons

1) Due to the limited possibilities of the natural means of communication on which it was based.

2) The current regulations of the people's assembly, with the increase in the number of its participants, made it difficult to make decisions. Gatherings and Veche became incapacitated and looked more like rallies than meetings where a decision was made.

3) Opportunities for bribery and majority manipulation have increased. It is not difficult to organize the crowd into destructive actions and various iniquities.

4) Respectable citizens did not want to take on the burden of power and refused to attend the meeting, and instead of them lumpen and bribed bawlers came to the meeting. The citizen was not required to be a member of the congregation.

The lack of experience in the participation of the population in gatherings, as well as the art of manipulating the opinion of the majority, made possible the dominance in the assembly of small groups of people who sought to make decisions in their own interests. This weakened the state, as citizens did not want to comply with laws passed against their will, which also contributed to the increase in violence. By the time of Ivan III, the Novgorod state, formally based on direct democracy, had become a colossus with feet of clay and could not withstand competition with the Moscow principality. The aristocrats of Novgorod, blinded by wealth, did not want to spend money on the creation of a permanent army. Moscow had professional soldiers. The revival of the Soviets in their former form is unacceptable today.

Today there should be New Soviets based on the mechanisms and the legal idea of direct democracy, when the citizen of the community is recognized as the real bearer of power, and self-government bodies are only users of power generated by the People's Assembly or the Council of the Territorial Community.

POSSIBILITIES OF DIRECT POPULATION

Modern means of communication make possible direct democracy in the system of local self-government.

There are reasons for this.

1) There is an experience of direct democracy. The principle of direct democracy is today implemented in the Swiss communities, in the jury. In addition, there are psychological prerequisites for direct democracy. Modern man has experience of attending meetings and has enough discipline to comply with the regulations adopted by the meeting.

2) A citizen through the mass media got an idea of how a decision is made in parliaments. The modern average Russian, in contrast to the Novgorodian of the 15th century, has experience of participating in various meetings and is able to comply with the rules of the meeting.

3) The principle of democracy is consistent with the collective unconscious of Russians, since all peoples inhabiting Russia have had this experience of communal self-government.

4) The Constitution of the Russian Federation and the State Duma allow direct democracy in the law on local self-government. The recently adopted Duma law defining forms of control against falsification of presidential elections allows for a form of direct democracy, which legally recognizes that representative democracy has outlived its usefulness.

It is known that the main functions of local authorities are the approval of the budget, the adoption of legal acts that determine the way of life in a given community and approval in office, and the adoption of reports by the head and officials of the self-government. These functions in the management of Swiss communities are today carried out through a poll of citizens who have the right to vote. The model Charter of the territorial community, developed by the round table of the Russian Zemsky Movement, which was led by the author of this article, states the following:

"5.2. Any member of the Community can participate in the work of the People's Assembly. If the Community is large, then participation in the People's Assembly is carried out by members of the community in turn, determined by lot. The method of drawing of lots is determined by the People's Assembly. Participation in the meeting is, in accordance with Russian traditions, the" zemstvo obligation ", the implementation of which is necessary and honorable. A member of the community may refuse to participate in the meeting of this convocation."

This procedure can do without telecommunication means, which are not yet available for remote settlements. It creates an opportunity for some time for each citizen to take on the burden of power and responsibility for decisions about their own lifestyle, without shifting them to intermediaries, who, as a rule, abuse power, if not in their own interests, then in the interests of those who can. to pay. The recruitment of the New Council does not require an election campaign, which makes the power a hundred times cheaper. The cost of drawing lots, security and organizational costs are incomparable in price to the procedures of a representative democracy or previous Soviets. Direct democracy can be extended to the level of District Councils, whose members will be delegated by a quota for a short period from each territorial community of the given district. City Councils can be created in a similar way. The question of central authority is not touched upon by this project. The councils of this composition remain in office for three months. After that, there is a complete or partial renewal of the composition of the Meeting by drawing lots.

The benefits that come with this are unique

1) The opportunity for each member of the community to take part in the work of the council in turn, determined by lot.

2) Participation in the work of the authorities of each member of the community, contributes to the development of legal awareness in him, increases responsibility and eliminates dependent moods in people that lead the population into political traps of various kinds.

3) Hinders the corruption of the authority.

4) Enables each member of the community to share the burden and responsibility of the authorities.

5) A participant in the meeting does not receive any advantages over an ordinary member of the community, but rather even sacrifices his rights during his tenure in power.

6) The system cancels elections, that is, those rules of the game that provide financial capital in our time with the ability to successfully manipulate consciousness and manage society in their own interests, and not in the interests of all citizens. These - unsuitable rules of the game must be replaced by other rules that correspond to the spirit of the people.

7) Elimination of the electoral system will improve the life of territorial communities, eliminate the sources of artificial crises stimulated by the upcoming elections, when the politics and work of responsible officials are focused on attracting and flirting with voters, and not on business.

8) The lot is not subject to parties and people's interests. He connects the divine and the earthly. Criteria for making decisions in modern science when it deals with random processes are based on the lot. Our ancestors used the lot. Science uses the lot to make decisions using statistical criteria.

9) Replacing the election of members of the New Soviets by drawing of lots increases the dependence of the government on the people.

A common objection to drawing lots: by lot, according to the law of large numbers, an average representation is achieved. Can the average person do management? After all, management is the highest art, requiring not only knowledge and experience, but also a special intuition. Management should be handled by the best, proven and credible, not "cooks".

The proposed system of direct democracy does not reject the art of government, but presupposes it, since the rulers are chosen and approved by the people in accordance with their talent and management efficiency. Only the direct responsibility of the head of administration before the Assembly is introduced and no more. The lot is used only in determining the membership of the Assembly. Other positions in the system of self-government are chosen by the Assembly or appointed by a person fully responsible to the People's Assembly of the Community.

The project is based on distinguishing between two fundamental things: the act of generating power and acts of using power for the purpose of governance

Spawn of power carried out only and only by the expression of the will of a member of the national assembly. There should be no other sources of power. This clear distinction makes it impossible for the legislative and executive powers to struggle, for power is ONE, and it is created only in the Assembly.

And in the Office only control, that is, the exercise of power, as it should be. The officials of the governing bodies will depend only on the assembly, and not on their own party, money injections and higher bureaucracy.

Eliminating the influence of money on self-government will make life healthier. The beneficial consequences of direct democracy are difficult to describe. Suffice it to say that at the local government level, politics will become the healing of souls. And now politics is a dirty business. Any business must meet with the support of the active part of the population.

Let's see what government people and politicians get. The statesmen will gain support, confidence and will in the People's Assembly, since they will not depend on three or four masters (the party, funding groups, higher bureaucracy and the interests of the business), but only on the People's Assembly. Scripture says that a person cannot have two masters.

No party can seize power. Therefore, the parties will cease to strive to seize power and will acquire their true nature: to express certain ideas and interests of certain segments of the population before the only source of power by the New Soviets. In the Soviets, not professionals will express their will, but citizens who will adopt legal acts for themselves. Their consent is the only source of acceptance of the act.

The strength of the state is in the implementation of laws and regulations. When people accept the rules for themselves, they will tend to obey them, and the law will not need to be forced to comply with it, as it happens today. Direct democracy or direct democracy - based on nonviolence … Coercion and violence are not general, but special cases of the life of a non-violent government in special cases, for example, the capture of robbers and swindlers.

Increased professionalism of legislators. Professionals will serve the Assembly, developing draft acts, carrying out their examination, persuading the Assembly to accept the act or refuse it. Only in the new Soviets will professionals serve the people, and cadres of managers capable of loyally serving the people will be raised.

Scientists of the International Academy of Informatization (MAI), together with analysts of the Council of Communities of the Russian Zemsky Movement, investigated the historical experience, types, traditions of direct democracy that took place at different times on the territory of the Russian state and other countries and, as a result, developed the principles, structure, and foundations of organizing direct democracy in conditions of territorial communities, traditional for Russia. They are embodied in five main documents:

1. Charter of the Zemsky Territorial Community
2. Code of the People's Assembly
3. Code of Community Governor
4. The Code of the Community Court
5. Rules of Procedure of the People's Assembly, named as the "Code of Ethics of a Member of the People's Assembly"

These documents developed by the Round Table can form the basis for the development of the legal structure of the New Councils. I am convinced that the 21st century will lay the foundation for direct democracy and the rule of the world finance capital will become obsolete.