3 Structures Of Government.

3 The Structures Of Government.

In which The Professor Speaks On The Structures Of Government in a better DEmocracy.

It was over breakfast on the third day of their visit that Jack Truly, being anxious to know the very basics of the system in The Good Country, said to the Professor: “Can you give me a simple run-through of the structures of government here?”

Professor:- Okay — let’s see how simple it is. The basic social structure in any country is built up like this: At the first level people live in a community, a unit where they ‘bump into’ each other regularly. They are in direct communication with each other. Let’s call this a Community.
Secondly, a Community exists within a larger area where certain things are common to several Communities. We’ll call this a District. The common factors could be anything — that they are a suburb in a city, a farming area in a common marketing system, a group with it’s Chief alongside other groups in a rural tribal area, a rural community clustered round a trading store or railhead, or, indeed, even a village among other villages and rural communities clustered around a common regional center.
Thirdly, a District is situated in a recognised geographic area, defined by natural features such as mountain ranges or a riverine system. It could also be defined by long-standing political boundaries. We call these Provinces.
Then there is the State — in our case, The Good Country.

Truly:- I hear you — there is nothing different in what you say to what we
have at home, is there!?

Professor:- On the surface, no. The difference comes in how an entity’s interests are represented from each level to the next. The usual political system starts with leader-types forming parties, devising policies different to other parties, recruiting and training ‘lieutenants’ and workers to persuade voters to vote them into office. The party has a ‘boss’ in the same way as any business organisation; it is actually just another form of business in which people in the hierarchy take their salaries. On the subject of party-bosses, as a matter of interest, listening to a radio programme last night broadcast from a neighbouring country, I heard a party leader say in reference to a dispute with his deputy leader, “I wouldn’t criticise my boss
in public the way he criticised me!” Then, in another interview, a leader lower down in the pecking order said: “I wouldn’t criticise my boss like he did.” That party is all about extreme centralism, and very little about real democracy.

Truly:- Well, doesn’t there have to be a party leader to control the whole thing? I mean, everybody can’t just do as they like, can they?

Professor:- You don’t need party bosses if you don’t have any parties. Why do
you need parties? After all, true democracy works with delegates, not drivers.

The professor paused to gaze long and hard at Jack Truly, who just nodded
slowly as the idea sank in.

Professor:- Here in The Good Country they have delegates from each level to the next level, and — this is the crux of it — each level has the power to recall it’s delegate at any time, no matter how high up the structural-ladder he has been posted; a delegate at State level can be recalled by his home Community, or by the other Delegates meeting at any level in between.

Truly:- Really? — I don’t think our chaps back home would go for that one!

Professor:- No, they wouldn’t, and that is why we don’t have true democracy any where in the West. Once elected, the members of government have very little responsibility toward the people. I have heard it put in this way: ‘When looking for votes, politicians promise to work for the people. Once elected, they work for the party or government that pays their salaries.’

Truly and the Professor both gave attention to their breakfasts for a while. Then the coffee came and they settled back to talk again.

Professor:- The ‘one man, one vote’ philosophy can only be true where people, living in a shared environment, can gather and face one another in open discussion about issues that affect them. In The Good Country that happens at ‘Community’ level where people meet to select one person from the community to be the delegate to District Level. No one lays down any rules about how they should meet, or how their delegate should be identified. In a rural tribal area the delegate could well be the local chief or his appointee. Where the people are happy with their traditional chief, there is no pressure on them to change, but where there is abuse, the pressure comes from the other delegates at the level applicable.

Truly:- What happens in a ‘mixed community’ — where some are tribal and others are ‘western’? Also, it seems to me, that in this country there are many different ethnic-cultural groups. How do they ‘feel’ represented?

Professor:- It depends on the numbers. Wherever a sufficient number of people (but the figure is variable, according to the demographics of the area) of any persuasion in a Community can come together in a meeting, they are entitled to send a delegate to the Community Council which in turn will agree on delegates to the District council. All opinions are therefore catered for at the District level.

Truly:- Fair enough. There is no reason why a delegate from 100 should be any less intelligent than a delegate from 10 000.

Professor:- Correct. It is — to coin a word — representivity that we need, so that even minorities end up feeling that they have some say in their own government.

Truly:- I know exactly what you mean. I have voted for years, but because my party has never been in the majority, I have never felt that I have any real say in what our country does. Okay, now how does the District Council relate to the Provincial Council?

Professor:- This is where ‘one group, one vote’ takes over from the ‘one person, one vote’ idea. Each District Council can send five delegates to the Provincial Council. And — yes, you’ve guessed it — each Provincial Council can send ten delegates to the State Council.

Truly:- I’m amazed!! Each grouping of people ends up being equally represented number-wise as every other group at it’s level! Just like the United Nations!!

At this point, Truly ran out of exclamation marks, so he rose from the table to go to his room to make ready for the day’s visit to the Homeless Park in Bontown.