By Ian Woods 

Take, for example, protecting our environment, which the environmental movement has been trying to do for years. Even though a clear majority
of us wants decisive actions to be taken, governments around the world waffle by pushing emission targets way off into the future, as if the next generation can deal with it. What a put off! Just to think, our species, who is called ‘homo sapiens’ – man the wise – is so smart we can conquer space, but, at the same time, we are so stupid we can’t even stop polluting the very air we breathe, the soil in which we grow our food and the water we drink. Other species have learned not to foul their own nests. What’s the matter with us? Well, it’s all to do with ‘politics’ my friends. As someone once said: “If you don’t deal with politics, politics will deal with you.”

* * *

One of Canada’s best known politicians, Tommy Douglas (1904–1984), is known as the Father of Medicare. In 2004, he was voted “The Greatest Canadian” of all time in a nationally televised contest organized by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Tommy Douglas is famous for a
story he once told about one of the main problems we have with our form of Western-style representative government.

It’s the story of a place called MOUSELAND which describes our current situation quite nicely. Mouseland was a place where all the little mice lived
and played, were born and died. And they lived much the same as you and I do. They even had a Parliament. And every four years they had an election. They used to walk to the polls and cast their ballots. Some of them even got a ride to the polls. And they got a ride for the next four years afterwards too. Just like you and me.

And every time on election day all the little mice used to go to the ballot box and they used to elect a government – a government made up of big, fat, black cats. Now if you think it strange that mice should elect a government made up of cats, you just look at the history of Canada for last 90 years and maybe you’ll see that they weren’t any stupider than we are.

Now I’m not saying anything against the cats. They were nice fellows. They conducted their government with dignity. They passed good laws – that is, laws that were good for cats. But the laws that were good for cats weren’t very good for mice.

One of the laws said that mouse holes had to be big enough so a cat could get his paw in. Another law said that mice could only travel at certain speeds – so that a cat could get his breakfast without too much effort.
All the laws were good laws. For cats. But, oh, they were hard on the mice. And life was getting harder and harder. And when the mice couldn’t put up with it any more, they decided something had to be done about it. So they went en masse to the polls. They voted the black cats out. They put
in the white cats.

Now the white cats had put up a terrific campaign. They said: “All that Mouseland needs is more vision.” They said: “The trouble with Mouseland is those round mouse holes we got. If you put us in, we’ll establish square
mouse holes.” And they did. And the square mouse holes were twice as big as the round mouse holes, and now the cat could get both his paws in. And life was tougher than ever.

And when the mice couldn’t take that anymore, they voted the white cats out and put the black ones in again. Then they went back to the white cats, then to the black cats. They even tried half black cats and half white cats. And they called that a ‘coalition.’ They even got one government made up of cats with spots on them – they were cats that tried to make a noise like a mouse but ate like a cat. You see, my friends, the trouble wasn’t with the color of the cat. The trouble was that they were cats. And because they were cats, they naturally looked after cats, instead of mice.

Presently there came along one little mouse who had an idea. My friends, watch out for the little fellow with an idea. And he said to the other mice, “Look fellows, why do we keep on electing a government made up of cats? Why don’t we elect a government made up of mice?” “Oh,” they said, “he’s a Bolshevik [Communist]. Lock him up!” So they put him in jail.

But I want to remind you: that you can lock up a mouse or a man but you can’t lock up an idea.

* * *

That pretty well sums up the current political system which we call ‘representative democracy’ today. Tommy Douglas’ Mouseland story reveals the crux of the problem – and why we aren’t able to get many good things done.

SOMETHING’S WRONG WITH ‘DEMOCRACY’ TODAY

Many of us in the 9/11 Truth movement have been working on getting a new, thoroughly independent investigation into 9/11 ever since The 9/11 Commission Report came out in July 2004. That’s over four years now and we don’t seem to be any closer to getting it, in the United States, or elsewhere. Without the cooperation of our political leaders at the national level of our governments, all our good work exposing the truth and lies of 9/11 seems to be falling on deaf ears in Congresses and Parliaments around the world.

Unless there is a political revolution somehow, the governments of all our so-called democracies are going to prevent us from re-opening 9/11.

We seem to be blocked, ignored and stymied in all our efforts thus far, even though our grassroots’ campaigns have been quite successful around the world in raising 9/11 Truth awareness in the public’s mind.

For example, even in Jaipur, India, where I visited recently, I met some local engineering students who had heard about 9/11 Truth, the mysterious collapse of a third skyscraper (Building 7) on 9/11 and Willie Rodriguez’
testimony of a huge explosion in the basement of the Twin Towers before the first plane hit. That is encouraging.

Fortunately, there have been some brave parliamentarians who have spoken up recently on 9/11, as in the case of Yukihisa Fujita, a member of the Japanese Parliament (in early 2008), and Guilietto Chiesa, a member of the European Parliament, who recently screened a new documentary film about 9/11 called Zero for his fellow parliamentarians. But these instances of 9/11 Truth breaking out in our various Congresses and Parliaments around the world are few and far between.

We know that it’s not that our fellow citizens don’t want a new inquiry into 9/11. The latest polls (at least in America) show that a majority of people polled want a new inquiry to get to the bottom of all the contradictions which we 9/11 Truthers have brought to the forefront. (See “There are Millions of Us Now,” Global Outlook, Issue #12, ps. 3-4.)

The problem lies with our various national governments who unilaterally have decided to avoid the 9/11 issue, so they can get on with the ‘BUSINESS’ of fighting the ‘war on terror’ and the ‘credit crunch’ among other things – both of which have largely evolved as a result of the blind support by the general public of the Bush administration’s version of events that day.

If only ONE of our so-called democracies in the world would listen to what the majority of people wanted, we’d have had a new investigation into 9/11 by now. But there seems to be a ‘disconnect’ between what our governments want and what the people want – and for good reason, which
I shall go into shortly.

* * *

THERE’S A WORLDWIDE DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT

9/11 Truth is not the only cause that is suffering from what you could call a ‘democratic deficit’; there are countless other issues and policies which activists around the world want fixed, funded or flung overboard. But our elected ‘representatives’ oppose our demands because they claim “they know better” and that they have a ‘mandate’ to do as they please, once elected.

Example One

Take just one basic example. How many of us want peace? 99.9 % of us on the planet? And yet a handful of elected politicians around the globe (who supposedly represent us) keep sending us off to fight wars in which millions of us are needlessly killed, maimed or left homeless. I wonder why?!

If you ask most, if not all, of the citizens around the world if they want these wars, they would say, “No.” It’s only a tiny percentage that want it: the arms dealers, the ‘banksters,’ and warmongering politicians. That perhaps is an oversimplified example of a very complex issue, but it does illustrate the basic point that representative democracy, as a method of governing
ourselves, is for the most part BROKEN.

Example Two

We make speeches here and elsewhere about truth, justice and 9/11, thinking that our numbers are small and desperately hoping that more will join our movement. But many of us don’t realize that out there, in places like India, which is the largest democracy in the world, farmers are committing suicide at the rate of two an hour, for the last ten years, due to the effects of the Indian government signing agreements with transnational corporations who have brought economic globalization to the Third World.

Elsewhere in India, the survivors of one of the world’s largest industrial disasters in Bhopal in 1984 still have not received proper compensation or health care for themselves. The government of India based their quick settlement (with Union Carbide) on 3,800 deaths and yet doctors who provided medical assistance claim that within a month at least 15,000
people had died. What kind of justice is that?

The people of India are up against the same thing we are – a ‘disconnect’ between the government and the people. If you ask the Indian people, practically everyone agrees that there is massive government corruption blocking their demands for the truth and justice and protection from big
business – and yet their government doesn’t seem to give a damn. So we have some allies out there in India – over one billion people – who are fighting the same battle on a different front. They too would benefit from what I am about to tell you about … a powerful, yet peaceful, set of tools
which are not talked about very much.

WHAT IS MEANT BY THE WORD ‘DEMOCRACY’? 

Before going any further, let me define the various types of democracies, the way I see them. 

The word democracy comes from the Greek: DEMOS = People, KRATOS = Rule – meaning RULE BY THE PEOPLE. There are essentially four different forms of democracy. There’s: 

1. Direct Democracy (otherwise known as Participatory Democracy or you could think of as: Pure, Real, Authentic, Genuine or True Democracy) which was discovered by the Greeks and is currently practiced by the Swiss people (which I will describe later in the article.) 

2. Representative Democracy – which you’ll find in nations where the people elect politicians to represent us in Parliament or Congress. (That is what we are told anyway.) This is practiced in the United States in which the Head of State is the President. It is often referred to as a ‘Republic’ to differentiate it from the third form of democracy: 

3. Parliamentary Democracy – which is practiced in such nations as Britain, Canada and Australia. In these instances, the Head of State is the Queen of England, and it is herself or her representative, the Governor General, who must give Royal Assent to all legislation before it becomes law. So it is not an ‘independent’ representative democracy, as such, but subservient to the Crown. There is another form of democracy which is never mentioned, yet prevalent everywhere. It is what I call: 

4. MIS-Representative Democracy – where those elected don’t represent the people who voted for them, but rather bow to special interest groups such as their paymasters or their parties, where they must “toe the line,” otherwise they will get turfed out of their party and sit as an independent. This form of democracy is a sham and rightly shouldn’t even be called a democracy, as it is entirely the opposite of what democracy was meant to be – government OF the people, FOR the people, BY the people. Rather it is government OF the people, FOR special interests (like the corporations), BY puppet politicians (with hidden agendas). 

As they say, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” I ran for political office three times in the Canadian federal elections of 1997, 2000 and 2004. In one All Candidates Meeting, I asked the incumbent Aileen Carroll – a Liberal in the Paul Martin government – how she would vote if she were given a free vote on an issue. I gave her the three choices:

Along party lines? No.

According to the wishes of her constituents? No. 

According to her own conscience? Yes. 

Her answer stunned me and the audience. When I asked her why, she said, “Because I’m smarter than my constituents.” 

That floored me and, I can honestly say I heard people in the audience gasp. I had suspected that is what she might say. But to say that right in front of 200 or so of her own constituents was unbelievable. The funny thing was, she was re-elected – but I don’t think it was thanks to any of those in the audience that evening.

 * * *

I see most of our current forms of democracy around the world as being MIS-representative – with the exception of Switzerland (which I will come to later).

THE OXCART ANALOGY

Most democracies are similar to a cart being pulled by an ox that is going around in circles. The two wheels represent the people on the one hand and the elected politicians on the other. The cart represents the government of the day. If you look closely, you’ll see that the reason why the ox and cart are going around in circles is because one wheel is bigger than the other ... and so both wheels are out of balance. The elected politicians have become the BIG Wheel. And the people have been reduced to a small wheel which keeps the cart upright. But no matter how much we encourage the ox to go forward, we just go round and round in circles. It’s obvious we need to balance things out. We have given too much power to our elected representatives. And, as history shows, too much power in the hands of a few tends to corrupt the whole process. 

Example One

Here’s a good example of what I mean by a MIS-representative democracy. Only 23% of eligible voters in Canada voted in the last election for the new party-in-power – the Conservatives. As many know, the Conservatives in Canada are bound and determined to keep us fighting in Afghanistan. And yet, the majority of Canadians (52% according to an October 2007 Angus Reid poll) want us OUT. What kind of representation is that?

Example Two

In the US election of 2004, 60.7% of the eligible voters actually voted. Of that, allegedly 50.7% (according to Wikipedia) voted for George W. Bush. That means then that only 30.7% of Americans (who were eligible to vote) voted for President Bush and that’s not taking into consideration the probable swing vote manipulation by the electronic voting machines.

This means that approximately 70% of Americans DIDN’T vote for ‘W.’ And their so-called President has turned the country upside down – economically, ruined its once good reputation, and trashed its civil liberties, not to mention the tragic consequences of Bush’s righteous ‘war on terror’ for all those caught in the crossfire. What kind of representation is that? Only 30%! And that ‘mandate’ has been responsible for carrying out all sorts of devastating policies, in which the other 70% of Americans can do nothing but bite their tongue, or get arrested protesting on Capitol Hill. 

Example Three

Here’s a good example from the recent past. Remember when ‘Tricky Dick’ – Richard Nixon promised he’d pull US troops out of Vietnam? Well that turned out to be a whopper. And millions voted for him on that one promise alone. When he became President, he did the very OPPOSITE! He never intended to keep that promise. He just wanted to get elected. Talk about MIS-Representation! 

When I worked in real estate we, as agents, were warned about mis-representation; it was illegal. Why do the politicians get away with it? I guess it’s because they are the ones who make the laws. Obviously it’s not us. 

Let’s look at some of the things people want but can’t get because our ‘know-it-all’ politicians don’t want them:

• Real protection of our environment 

• Fair Trade, as opposed to Free Trade 

• Monetary Reform to fix the corrupt debt-based national money systems 

• Stopping corporate globalization of our nation-states 

• Stopping the privatization of the welfare state and the commons 

• Stopping the North America Union and Asia Pacific Economic Union from creating regional currencies 

• Stopping the erosion of the independence of each sovereign nation 

• Stopping the ongoing occupation and war in Afghanistan and Iraq 

And, of course, what all 9/11 Truthers want: 

• Getting a new independent international investigation into 9/11. 

These are all popular issues that a majority of us, if adequately educated on the various subjects, would surely want. But we’ll be lucky if we get any one of them. Why? Because the current system we call democracy is broken. It’s literally based on a series of ‘broken’ promises. 

* * *

Here are 3 more reasons why the current system fails us: 

Reason One 

Every time you vote, you have to make a series of compromises. With only one vote, how do you cast it? For a particular party or against a certain party? For the best leader or for the best candidate? For a party who supports an important new policy you agree with, or against a party who has a policy you oppose? Does one vote do us justice in this kind of system?

Reason Two

Once in power, there’s very little the average person can do about influencing the government’s course of actions, even if their platform upon which they are elected is trashed and a new one which is 180º different is brought forward. The newly-elected Prime Minister Stephen Harper did an about-face flip-flop on taxing Income Trusts in Canada in 2006. It upset a lot of people who voted for him on that issue, but ‘too bad’ – there’s nothing the voters can do about it – except wait until the next election to vote him out. And then they go through the same process all over again. 

Reason Three 

Some have said that we have a system that is based on ONE DOLLAR – ONE VOTE rather than ONE PERSON – ONE VOTE. If you think of it, that’s a pretty good description of the corruption within our current system. As they say: “Those who pay the piper call the tune.” In other words, whoever funds the mainstream political parties gets their policies put in place by ‘their’ elected politicians. No wonder our governments keep borrowing money (unnecessarily) from the private bankers, because the ‘banksters’ (as I call them) are major donors to BOTH of the mainstream political parties. 

WHO BEST REPRESENTS US?

Our current system is based on the need to send representatives to the nation’s capital to represent us. That was necessary back in the day of the horse and buggy, but nowadays we have the means to represent ourselves.

The days of our reliance on the radio and telegraph for the news are long gone. We now know just as much about what’s going on in the world today as our politicians. In fact, regarding the issues which affect us personally, in many cases, we probably know MORE! 

But when our elected representatives get there, they are surrounded by lobbyists. Some say lobbyists are the THIRD and BIGGEST party of all ... hidden in plain sight. Our representatives are twisted and turned to suit the party, who in turn bow to their corporate masters. So those elected fast become, as I say – MIS-representatives. 

The minute they get to our respective nation’s capitals they become the slaves of the party system and lose their independence. (Lou Dobbs political commentator for CNN TV apparently agrees. He has just come out with a book called Independents Day to make that point. He advocates that all members of Congress in the US be independents.)

When you eventually arrive at that understanding, you will realize why substantive change benefitting us (we, the people) will rarely happen. 

That’s when I began to look for something better. 

* * *

WHAT’S THE SOLUTION? 

In 2000, I went to Greece on a little holiday with my fiancée. We decided to visit the Oracle of Delphi just outside Athens and we ended up taking a guided walking tour. 

Way back in the Fifth Century BC, Athenian leaders often consulted the priests at the Oracle of Delphi when they had to make any major decisions such as when to go to war, how to defend Athens during an invasion, or other such important matters. The voices of the Oracle have been silent for over 2,500 years, but I wondered what I would ask the Oracle given the chance.

As we walked around the ruins, in the middle of the birthplace of democracy, I thought about what the Oracle would say about the current state of democracy around the world today – and how it could be fixed. Just for fun, I asked Stefanos, our guide, what he thought the Oracle would say about that. He’d been showing people around those ruins for decades and knew them inside out. 

I remember Stefanos pausing with us under an olive tree below the ruins, as we waited for the rest of the tour to catch up. The sun was beating down on those ancient ruins as we stood there enjoying the shade. He scratched his head for a few moments, and appeared to be deep in thought. Then he looked up, and said: “I think I have your answer. It’s as simple as this: ‘participation’.” “Participation?” I asked. “Yes, indeed, the Oracle would have told you that all that is needed is ‘more participation.’ After all, how can you have a real democracy if the citizens don’t participate in the process?” “Well we do vote,” I replied. “Yes, but only one vote once every few years? Can you honestly call that ‘participation’?” I had to agree. 

Stefanos, or should I say, the Oracle of Delphi, was absolutely right. We, the people of this modern day world, have become spectators rather than participants in the most important game of all – the political process. We, the citizens, have to get more involved, in order to revitalize democracy. Otherwise, the decisions are going to continue to be made for us by a few self-selected ‘others,’ which means we’ll continue to get what we’re already getting: blatant corruption. We have a choice: either we really get involved in the political decision making process at all levels or we are going to continue to be ruled by a plutocracy, or worse, a ‘corporatocracy’ – composed of an unelected board of directors. 

WE NEED A BETTER MODEL

As the late great inventor of the geodesic dome, Buckminster Fuller, once said: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality ... To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

Is there a better model for democracy? Well, how about a model which encourages people to participate in the process – more than once every 2 to 4 years? 

How about a new way of policy making that involves us – so we can vote on all the important issues. For example, one that will let the majority veto proposed legislation or repeal existing laws we don’t like? 

One in which we, the people, are NOT subjected to laws that a majority of us doesn’t want. 

Or a system which allows us, as activists, to propose new laws that might appeal to a majority of our fellow citizens? 

How about a new form of democracy where we get to govern ourselves? Now wouldn’t that be a novel idea?! 

A form of democracy which is “Government OF the people, FOR the people and BY the people” ... As opposed to: “Government of the PEOPLE, for the CORPORATIONS, by the PARTIES.”

Sound like a dream? Not at all. This form of government actually already exists in various parts of the world. Not on a grand scale mind you. But it’s a well kept secret. You won’t hear its name mentioned very often by our elected representatives. Oh no. As long as we go along with the current system, they will never mention the alternative, because if it were introduced, it would strip those in office of most of their powers which, of course, would be a conflict of interest as far as they are concerned. 

One of our problems has been not realizing that there is a better model – another alternative – A WAY OUT of the current political quagmire we are stuck in. Rather than putting our energy into fighting the current INDIRECT form of democracy, we need to build a new DIRECT form of democracy and thereby cut out the middle man which is totally messing up the decision-making process. 

* * * 

What I’m talking about is the SWISS SYSTEM – which is: DIRECT DEMOCRACY – sometimes called PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY.

DIRECT DEMOCRACY (DD) 

Direct or Participatory Democracy – a.k.a. ‘pure’, ‘real’ or ‘true’ democracy – is defined as one in which people get to vote on the issues (as opposed to voting on politicians) in what are called Referendums (or Referenda) and/or they are able to UN-elect a politician from office by ‘recalling’ him or her.

HOW DOES DD WORK? 

The tools of Direct Democracy are: Referendum – Initiative – and Recall.

The Referendum – is a tool which people can use to vote on the issues. Referenda are policy questions referred to the people by the government asking voters to APPROVE or VETO current or proposed legislation. 

(N.B. In Canada, if the results of the referendum are binding then it is properly called a ‘referendum.’ If it is not binding upon the government, then it is referred to as a ‘plebiscite’ which means that the government doesn’t have to enact it, even if a majority vote in favor of it.)

Referenda only work if the question on the ballot is fair and balanced, and determined with citizen input and presented to an informed population. Here’s an example of the outcome of an unfair referendum question: The 1999 referendum put to the people of Australia by PM Howard (about whether or not they wanted to become a Republic or not) was written in such a way as to keep the Parliamentary system they have in place. As a result, Australians were forced to keep their current system, much to the disappointment of many. So there has to be a system of checks and balances to make sure the question is unbiased. 

Also the people must be able to understand an issue thoroughly before voting. A good example of that was the 2007 Ontario provincial referendum on Proportional Representation which failed because there was a total lack of public outreach to explain the issue.

Initiative – a.k.a. Citizen Initiated Referendum (CIR or binding CIR) whereby the people can put forward proposals for new laws, provided they can get enough signatures of support from their fellow citizens and thereby force a referendum question be put to their fellow citizens. This will only work if the requirements (or hurdles) are set correctly (meaning not too high and not too low). For example, in British Columbia, Canada, 10% of eligible voters must sign a petition in each of 75 districts, within 90 days (!) which is such a huge requirement that it has squelched any and all attempts to put an initiative on a ballot. On the other hand, other jurisdictions only require 5% of their constituents to sign a petition, within 12 months or so, and consequently have had reasonable success in having referendum questions on their ballots. 

Recall – Here the voters can recall an elected representative who has clearly MIS-represented them. One good example from Canada: Jag Badhuria, a Liberal, ran and got elected in a Toronto riding. When he got to Ottawa, a reporter questioned him about his credentials. He’d stated on his resumé that he had a law degree – LLB.int. The reporter asked him what the ‘int’ meant. He said that it meant ‘interim’, meaning he hadn’t quite got his degree, but was almost there. Well, when the news broke about that little deception, the Liberal government forced Mr. Badhuria out of the Liberal Party. But with the way the system is set up in Canada (and most so-called democracies around the world), they couldn’t force him out of office. So he sat there as an independent (and disgraced politician) in the Canadian Parliament for the next FOUR YEARS. Talk about ‘broken’! 

GLOBAL PROGRESS 

In the United States, about HALF of all states have initiative process and roughly a QUARTER have the right to recall. (You can get all the details of the American use of direct democracy in Thomas Cronin’s book, Direct Democracy.) 

In Canada there is only one province that has these tools: British Columbia. (To find out more on the Canadian experience, get either of Patrick Boyer’s books, The People’s Mandate or Direct Democracy.) 

But neither country has these tools at the federal level! 

Several other countries have made advances in Direct Democracy: Germany, Russia, Uruguay, Italy and Cuba. 

IN BRITAIN – thanks to the Labour government in 1975, referendums have been held on whether or not to join the European Union, the devolution for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and on the Good Friday Peace Agreement in Ulster in 1998. 

IN AUSTRALIA – an expert on Direct Democracy by the name of Professor Geoffrey Walker (former Dean of Law at the University of Queensland in Brisbane) has written a book: Initiative and Referendum: THE PEOPLE’S LAW (1987) available from The Center for Independent Studies. 

He is also author of the recent paper – The Advance of Direct Democracy (DD) – which was presented to the Samuel Griffith Society at a conference in 2003 entitled: Upholding the Australian Constitution. In it, Professor Walker says, “It is clearly incongruous that the people are sovereign, but are unable to repeal the laws that govern them.” 

WILL THE ADVANCES IN DD CONTINUE?

According to Professor Walker, there is no reason to think not. The factors that have contributed to the rise in popularity of Direct Democracy are still at play. 

Not only that, but advances in technology have presented us with a new opportunity to advance the form of democracy we have inherited.

DECENTRALIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE

Thanks to the Internet, we now have the ability to take the decision-making power back from the middlemen. 

According to Professor Walker, an estimated 30 percent of Australians (and probably North Americans and Europeans) rely on the Internet “for news and current affairs, enabling anyone to bypass the official media and discover a mass of information and opinion that the elite would prefer we did not know about.” 

REAL DEMOCRACY IS KEY TO OUR SURVIVAL 

Political globalization is sweeping the world resulting in a growing ‘democratic deficit.’ 

National governments around the globe are being squeezed by transnational corporations (TNCs) into submitting to ‘free trade’ practices that benefit the elites. And political parties (which are heavily influenced by the TNCs) relax laws that the citizens dearly cherish, such as foreign ownership of natural resources. 

Canberra, Ottawa and even Washington are under more and more pressure to cede power over to international institutions in the form of treaties. The result is a contraction of national sovereignty. 

As Professor Walker warns: “More and more power is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. The people wielding these powers are elected by no one, and in practical terms are accountable to no one.” 

Semi-secret organizations, like the CFR, the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg Group, formulate world policies behind closed doors. The influence of these semi-secret organizations further weakens government’s accountability to the people and strengthens the case for DD. 

Professor Walker suggests introducing DD at the national level in Australia, Canada and the United States, would: 

1. Offer another line of defense of our national sovereignty. 

2. Showcase the principle of self-government to other countries. 

3. Tap into the creative potential of the people and encourage more people to get involved in the decision making process.

As Professor Walker says, "Politics and lawmaking should be something that is done by us, not to us."

IN SWITZERLAND 

The Swiss system of government, which is the prime example of direct democracy, has proven to be one of the most successful and stable forms of government over a long period of time. 

It all began in 1874 (and in 1891 when it was strengthened) when the cantons of Switzerland decided that they would like to have a Citizen-Initiated Referendum system. 

The big difference between Switzerland and other democracies is that Parliament does not create new laws, but only submits them to the people who decide for themselves whether or not to implement them. 

The Swiss vote, on average, on more than two dozen issues a year. 

In Switzerland, politics is not directly determined by the parties, but rather by the will of the people. 

By its very nature, the outcome of the Swiss system of self-government . in which all important political decisions are made by the citizens . depends on the will of the people and NOT on the will of the politicians. 

So a political promise, during election time, to reduce taxation would be laughed at, as it's the people that decide how much they will be taxed, not the politicians! 

Switzerland has had fewer strikes than most other industrialized countries. It has resolved difficult internal problems such as those arising from their three different ethnic groups. It is one of the most stable countries in Western Europe with low taxation and low inflation. 

The Swiss system reduces the power of pressure groups on politicians. It breaks down party divisions and unifies a diverse population. 

It may not be perfect, but Switzerland has, in my opinion, the most advanced form of democracy on the planet. 

MAHATMA GANDHI 

While visiting India, I had a chance to visit Gandhi's house which is now a museum in Mumbai (Bombay). I asked the curator there, Meghshyama, what Gandhi would do if he were alive today about the situation in India and around the world regarding the total lack of democracy. We discussed it and he agreed that Gandhi would probably start another SATYA-GRAHA (which when translated means "truth force") or peaceful protest against all the corruption and misrepresentation and abuse of power. Gandhi held 16 of these throughout his lifetime. The last one, being the QUIT INDIA movement, resulted in India's Independence in 1947. 

So it wouldn't be unlike Gandhi to start a national STRIKE on voting day to demand that the people have more of a say in their affairs. By using non-violent non-cooperation, he might have started the "QUIT MIS-REPRESENTING US" campaign to clean up government corruption. The father of Indian Independence would demand that the people not only vote on the various personalities to carry out their bidding, BUT ALSO be given the right to vote on all important issues affecting them. 

Just imagine, if fewer than 10% of the people voted that day of the strike, the government would be forced to hold another election that included important referendum questions of the day, thereby reviving the right of people to govern themselves. 

* * *

If the majority of the public were sufficiently well-informed and if we had the tools of Direct Democracy at our disposal, we could have forced, by now, a referendum on whether or not to reject The 9/11 Commission Report. If a majority of us rejected that report, it would force the creation of a new independent inquiry into 9/11 . one of our main objectives. 

If we had Direct Democracy right now, we could also end the unjustified wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and prevent a pre-emptive strike on Iran. We could stop the "Security and Prosperity Partnership," the North American Union and the Amero from destroying our nationhood. We could abolish the Federal Reserve and institute a sane and sustainable debt-free money system. We could rein in the powers of monopoly capitalism and the transnational corporations. We could have recalled and impeached Bush for his opportunistic war crimes and put him, once and for all, behind bars, where he belongs. That's the power of Direct Democracy. Now that's what you call 'real' democracy! 

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This article is based on a speech given at the TruthNowTour in Australia, March 16, 2008. Ian Woods is the Publisher of Global Outlook. For more information please visit us at www.GlobalOutlook.ca. To find out more about "Direct Democracy" Google it on-line, or visit: www.swissworld.org/dvd_rom/ direct_democracy_2005/index.html which is an interactive computer session describing the Swiss system. Feedback about this article is welcome. Send yours to: editor@GlobalOutlook. ca. Copyright belongs to the author. All rights reserved.

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