| |
1. Politics ‘Politics’, ‘Politicians’, ‘Policy’, ‘Police’ all originate from POLIS, the title of city-states in ancient Greece. Such cities created their own laws, courts, money, army and foreign policy. There were many Poleis, each with its own special system for running the city, for making its laws, its policy, and its army. Some cities were named after their founders: the Emperor Constantine founded Constantino-polis. Adriano-polis was named after Adrian. Akropolis is the ‘high city’, the hilly part of ancient Athens. What a Polis wants to do is called ‘Polis-y’. “Politics” is the activity of deciding policy. People who decide policy are called “Politicians”. People appointed to enforce the laws of the Polis are called ‘Police’. Nowadays we can replace the term ‘Polis’ by the term ‘Society’. In some cities dictators decided all policies, in others - the elders or land owners. In Athens all citizens decided all policies. This was known as ‘Demos-kratia’ as the “Demos” (the entire community) decided all policies. What people call “Democracy” today is a system where representatives of citizens - not all citizens themselves - decide all policies. This is Rule by Representatives (RR), not democracy. Calling such a system “Democracy” is false and misleading. In Democracy all citizens decide all policies, and no one decides for others. Politics means deciding what an entire society should do. This is done today by a few politicians. Everywhere today only a few Representatives of citizens - not the citizens themselves - decide all policies. People accept policy-making by representatives because they cannot see how all citizens can do it themselves. This seems impossible. Finding out what millions of citizens want looked too complicated until recently. Today it can be done by electronic means. In Direct Democracy every citizen can propose, discuss and vote on every policy. Is this technically possible today? Yes. Is this desirable? To some - No. To others - Yes; To do politics is to decide policy. What does “to decide” mean? In politics there are two types of decisions: 1. What should society do? (decisions of policy) 2. How should society do it? (decisions how to carry out a policy). The next chapter discusses the first type. A later chapter discusses the second type. |
|
