The Executive Branch
This branch consists of a National Executive Council, foreign affairs, defense and finance departments.
Philosophy
The National Executive Council
Post Capitalist Free Market Society (PartVII) - Technological Democracy - The Executive Branch
As the top executive authority the council replaces the office of presidency or other highest executive office presently held. It consists of seven members who are elected for a non-renewable seven-year term. Members of the original council are elected with varying terms from one to seven years. Each year thereafter, one new member is elected for a seven-year term who replaces the one whose term expires.
The senior member of the council becomes president of the nation for a year. This would be the last year of his term in the council. For the initial council this would be the member elected for one-year term. At the end of the year, his term of presidency as well as membership of the council expires and the next senior council member, the one with two-year term, takes the office of the presidency and so on. This rule eliminates political struggle for presidency within the council, providing at the same time for equality of opportunity. The president presides over the council meetings and acts as the ceremonial head of the nation for diplomatic and other purposes. He speaks to the nation and the world on behalf of the National Executive Council. All executive decisions and national or foreign policies are made by a majority vote in the executive council within the framework established by the National Legislative Assembly.
Members to the council are elected from among the regional governors, past and present. They assemble once a year to elect one member to the National Executive Council for a 7-year term. The idea behind this process is that a member of the National Council must have experience at the regional (state) level, where the action is and where the democratic system is put into operation. Each governor gains knowledge and experience regarding socioeconomic aspects of democracy; he also accumulate valuable administrative and political knowledge and skills. These experiences are required because positions at the national level are remote from line functions since all domestic services are carried out at the regional and local levels. The national officials must be acqainted with and understand the nature of the public functions at the regional and local levels.
The Department of Foreign Affairs
The basic policies is based on the principle of equality of opportunity, particularly regarding the developing countries. Under current situations in diplomatic world, influenced by the economic elite and capitalistic norms, this approach may appear to be absurd. But if we want justice and prosperity in the world, we cannot get it through discrimination and subjugation of less developed countries by those developed, the United States in particular.
As in capitalism, where a small economic elite controls the operation of political and economic systems of an industrial country, on the world arena a few developed nations have control over the major economic resources of nearly all developing countries, through economic exploitation or political influence. Democracy within a nation cannot have a true and full meaning if the practicing nation allows its enjoyment only within its borders while practicing or consenting todiscrimination and suppression outside its borders.
A true democracy must have universal effects. A nation adopting it must recognize the universality of the principle of equality of opportunity. The developing nations must be relieved from economic or political subjugation. First, all national debts imposed on developing countries must be abolished to relieve the indebted nations from the impossible burden of paying off such debts. Creditor nations will not suffer much from this action since they have exploited the indebted nations for decades even centuries. Furthermore, as discussed before, the multinational financial firms in the United States, for example, will be broken down into smaller firms and their assets will be substantially diminished, since they will loose all their financial holdings in the production sectors, whether domestic or foreign as the capital in these firms is gradually transferred to the working class.
Second, all subsidiary firms of the domestic multinational corporations located in developing countries will be made independent by gradually transferring the capital of each firm to its workers employing the same wage-and-stock policy used for the domestic workers. After all, what is justified as being done within a democratic nation regarding the production of goods and services, must be also justified to be carried out in subsidiaries of the same firm abroad.
Third, all nations must be granted equal opportunity in international relations, whether economic, social or political. This kind of open diplomacy is crucial for peaceful coexistence of the nations. It establishes a rational ground for trust, resolving the conflicts through negotiations, and thus a strong ground for permanent peace. Governments not abiding by these democratic norms are considered enemies of peaceful coexistence and are gradually forced out of power by their own people through a democratic process induced by the democratic life within other nations. Because it is the responsibility of a democratic system to provide help in establishing equality of opportunity among other nations.
This democratic approach to foreign affairs is the only way that may allow, for the first time, opportunity to developing countries to develop on their own using their own chosen appropriate technology and process while benefiting from the technological and scientific knowledge available through advanced societies. It is also the only hope for global human prosperity, progress toward a global equilibrium, and a sustained and meaningful peace. Global disasters will be shared by all, so would global prosperities.
Presently, because of global disequilibrium, peace must be kept by force, where economically dominating nations, the United States in particular, tend to maintain the status quo through the presence of military power or by supporting despotic but friendly regimes in developing countries. The reality is that where force is needed to maintain order, justice and fairness are absent. There can be no real peace in a world with disequilibrium resulting from subjugation, suppression, discrimination or deprivation..
Department of Defense
Military power under the current global situation is, generally, needed mainly to guarantee forced domestic tranquility and international stability. Domestic unrest develops when there is exploitation, discrimination, poverty, insecurity and injustice. The state power then becomes necessary to suppress dissent and bring about a forced tranquility so the exploitation and discrimination can continue and capitalism controlled by the elite could prosper further. The military power is also needed to expand exploitation and suppression beyond the national borders into less fortunate countries or any other place they could be beneficially employed.
Technological democracy, by any practicing nation, tends to eliminate exploitation, discrimination and suppression of other nations. Policies toward other nations, particularly developing nations, drastically change tending toward equalization of opportunities. As more nations accept technological democratic system, the need for military force is substantially diminish to the negligible level of an international police force. As the world moves toward economic and social equilibrium, the need for military force diminishes and ultimately disappears. Consequently, in a technological democratic society, the size, level of armament, and sphere of activities of the military is substantially diminished and the Defense Department is responsible only to defend the nation within its borders if it is attacked from outside. However, this is quite unlikely to happen since under the rules of a strong new United Nations, very different from the present U.N., development of any aggressive force will be prevented. Thus under technological democracy, the size and activities of this department will be a small fraction of its present size and functions. Eventually the national military forces are transformed into a small international police force which for any operation abroad i9s placed under the command of the United Nations.
Two important principles must be noted here. First, in order to assist developing countries in getting rid of exploitation and discrimination, the country needs to expand its diplomatic relations with those countries particularly in the areas of economic, scientific and cultural affairs rather than through military imposition or suppression. Second, technological democracy tends to produce a highly educated, civilized and intellectual people. Such society need not have a strong military force either for self-defense or operation abroad, because it possesses a much greater power, an educated and civilized people. The history has shown over and over that when an advanced civilization was occupied by aggression, it soon was the aggressor that was assimilated into a stronger and more civilized culture and absorbed by its people. Thus, a technological democratic society cannot be truly conquered. It will ultimately subdue and conquer the conqueror.
It must not be mistaken that, measured by the standards of technological democracy, the United States, while technologically and scientifically advanced, is highly illiterate and primitive. That is why it has placed its trust on military might, a barbarian behavior, than in an advanced civilized population, which it is lacking. The strength of military power and its destructive capacity determine the level of barbarian nature of the people of that nation. By this description, the United States climb to the top of the list.
The Department of Finance
This department is responsible for all financial operations of the national system as well as providing funds for two major and essential services: health care and education. It consists of three main divisions: public consumption fund, general expenditures and revenues, and treasury and accounting.
The Public Consumption Fund
Here is where all consumption funds for social welfare expenditures are deposited and are transferred to regional offices according to the framework established by the Social Council. All the revenues from inheritance and profits go to this account and are spent primarily for education and health care. Any surplus remains in the fund's account for future use. If expenditures exceed revenues, the difference is supplied by the general revenue division.
It may be questioned that while technological democracy does not allow profits, where then do the revenues from profits come from? The fact is that until this democratic system is fully established at home and all other nations and as long as capitalism is practiced by other nations, profits will be made. It is also because the market systems remains still depending on supply and demand. Thus during the transition period from capitalism and socialism to democracy, profit making is continued though by a diminishing trend and disappears once a full democracy is achieved.
General Expenditures and Revenues
Money for this division comes mainly from the sale of national resources extracted or processed by private firms such as oil, iron, gas, timber and many other resources. It is expected that the revenues from the use of these national resources would far exceed the expenditures of the national government and a substantial amount will be left for research, development, and investment. In countries with few or no resources, revenues will be raised through taxation. However, in must be noted that in a technological democratic society there is no individual income tax. All taxes are paid by the production institutions. Since there is neither poor nor rich in a democratic society, this form of taxation seems to be just and equitable.
At the same time, since the size of national government is drastically reduced, its budget is a fraction of the current budget. Thus, the rate of taxation, despite being paid by the production firms rather than individuals, is reduced substantially. The revenues from the national resources and taxes are collected by local governments according to procedures and standards established by the National Economic and Production Council. After taking the local government expenditures, the surplus is transferred to regional government which, after deducting its own expenditures, transfers the residues to the national treasury. It must be noted that the local and regional governments are established under the national position classification system and thus their expenditures, based on their diminished size, is quite definite and calculated. All lover governments budgets are preset and calculated based on equality of opportunity with other governments, and changes are subject to national review by the Technodem before they become effective. Therefore, each government, local or regional, knows exactly how much money it can appropriate for its budget.
The Treasury and Accounting
This division is where revenues are deposited and expenditures withdrawn. The national budget and accounting office is also part of this division. This accounting responsibility bestows upon this division the authority to supervise the proper spending of the people's money. This office particularly checks the soundness of the expenditures, proper spending and accounting process of national, regional and local governments. It must be noted that no bureaucracy is needed to carry out this immense and complex task, the Technodem will do the job automatically, based on the principle of equality of opportunity, and report the results to the accounting office as well as the government involved. In the case of deficiency and failure to follow the rules concerning the budget, the problem must be resolved with the Technodem by the responsible government until a satisfactory solution is reached. The regional government is responsible for supervision of the regional and local expenditures on the grounds of equality of opportunity. Detailed structure and functions of the regional and local governments as well as production firms are presented in references presented below.
References:
1.Reza Rezazadeh, Technological Democracy: Ahumanistic Philosophy of the Future Society, 1990, pp. 259-265.
2. ----------------, Tecnodemocratic Economic Theory: From Capitalism and Socialism to Democracy. 1991, pp.190-193.
Dr. Reza Rezazadeh
1080 Eastman Street, Platteville, WI 53818
Phone: (608)348-7064
Post Capitalist Free Market Society (PartVII) - Technological Democracy - The Executive Branch
Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin System,and a Fulbright scholar, a multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural, and multi-lingual scholar with background in Mechanical Engineering (B.S.M.E.), Continental and Islamic Law (Licenciate), J.D. in American Jurisprudenxce, LL.M. in International Law and International Economics, Ph.D. in Political Science, Economics and Administration, and Doctor of the Science of Law (S.J.D.) the highest law degree offered in U.S. Fluent in five languages: English, French, Spanish, Persian, Azeri-Turkish. Elementary knowledge of Arabic, Urdu, Russian and Italian. Patented inventions; an artist, a poet (oil and pastel), a musician (violin), with over 35 years of academic background in teaching, research and administration, research and cultural studies in many countries in Europe including USSR, Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, Central and South America. Author of 8 books and many scholarly articles listed in his website http://www.democracywhere.com
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