Kia ora folks,
In the last couple of posts, I explored two key differences between a Democracy Co-op and a traditional political party. Firstly, a Democracy Co-op allows the responsibility for decisions which shape our country to be shared broadly whereas traditional parties typically involve a lot of buck-passing and arse-covering. Secondly, where traditional parties have a focus on what they can get from citizens (i.e. our vote), a Democracy Co-op focuses all its energy on the value it can give citizens in terms of input into Aotearoa’s direction.
For those without the time or inclination to read my previous ramblings, in this post, I’ve outlined 4 short summaries of some differences between a Democracy Co-op and a traditional party and the problems we’re seeking to solve.
Votes come from the public (and from a handful of party members). Traditional parties rely on spinning the narrative right up to the last second then anxiously waiting for the votes to be counted.
In a Democracy Co-op we only rely on votes from the membership, and we count our members every month in the TallyUp™.
In the Co-op model policy is collectively set by members who get it to parliament with their vote. We’re never trying to craft policy to capture votes and we’re never trying to sell anything, so we’re free to build the policy we think will best serve our country. We never have to spend money on campaign advertising, spin doctors, or focus groups to find out what buttons to push with the public to get their vote.
Typically formed around a specific cause or ideology – left vs. right, conservative vs. progressive
Seeks to create a super-ideology of collaboration in which people from a wide range of viewpoints come together intent on listening to each other and finding common ground
Like we’ve seen acutely in the US, societal division along political lines appears to be growing in New Zealand. This partisan rot, once it takes hold, is difficult to reverse. For traditional parties, division is a useful tool in their pursuit of votes. Increasingly we huddled together with like minded people only opening the door to fire shots at the other side, who are the enemy and always wrong by default. This is of course a terrible way to do politics and it’s seriously limiting our potential as a self-governing community. In reality, we need a mix of views. In reality, we have far more in common than not.
Get votes.
Give political power to our members.
I hope you’ll agree that the Democracy Co-op model is a better way to do politics in the country you care deeply about. All we need to do now is build it. I hope you’ll consider showing your support by joining here. And if you’re already a member, see if you can rustle up a few friends to support this idea. After all, democracy is all about the numbers. Also, it takes less than 2 minutes a month to get behind this project.
Ngā mihi
Rhys