In the previous seven articles of this series, I have tried to show the difference between “governance” and “politics.” In short, “politics” is about who is occupying the decision-making process. “Governance” is the actual discussion around the issues.
This series posits that, from busy politicians to partisan volunteer workers to political spectators to media reporters, 90% of our societal effort, energy, and time goes into “Who is making the decision?” The “what” is of secondary importance. Maybe the main function of “what” is to provide the background for “who” — to keep us entertained.
We are more into politicking than governing.
And this is a COLLOSAL WASTE of society’s human resources!
Tiered Democratic Governance
I have an alternative democracy: Tiered Democratic Governance (TDG). The TDG will shift the dial from mostly politics to mostly governance.
The TDG will be built from the ground up. It will experiment with different ways of democracy, keeping the better ways and discarding the ways that don’t work out. The TDG will find capable people to make decisions and put them in collaborative forums to make those decisions. When the TDG is ready to assume governance of society, it will be functioning very well to handle these real-world tasks because it has had practice and refinement.
While western democracy requires overly ambitious people to brag up their attributes for government, the TDG representatives will come to the decision-making table in a more organic way. With the filter of the TDG constitution and TDG elections, the TDG representatives will find themselves in decision-making roles because of their past performance in the TDG — not because of a campaign.
The TDG representative will also take a different attitude to his/her position. Such a representative will be thinking: “Somehow the TDG put me in this role. Somehow the TDG has put other people to work with me. I trust they are competent in their own ways. I will do my best to work with these people. Together we will work on the issue(s) facing us.”
The TDG representative will be focused on the issue. Not the next election. Not any personal elevation in the TDG. Not the wants and desires of partisans or even voters.
In the TDG, there is no need to degrade other TDG representatives to look better.
The TDG representative will be free of “politics.” Less time and energy on the acquisition of status, influence, and power means more time and energy on governance in the TDG. We can resolve more issues — and our representatives can spend more time with their family or recreation.
And with no politics clouding up the issues, we will be better able to see the connections between the issues.
Less politics! More governance! Is this not what we want?
END OF SERIES
Published on Medium 2023
Trailer Park Boys, Christianity, and the TDG
