The Qualitive Social Republic

Jason Peterson
(Copyright 2005)

It is popularly believed, and has been for thousands of years, that one of the utmost critical and identifying characteristics of human beings is our ability to rationalize. It seems then to be only logical and in our nature to organize and govern ourselves in a rational manner. A rational government is one that can be defined as ethical, progressive, and sustainable. In developing an outline for such a government, a contrast must be made between the deficiencies of capitalism, communism, democracies, and dictatorships. When a compromising middle ground can be reached amongst these extremes, that is where we will find a basis for the government that is most beneficial to the human race, in all of its diversity. The nature of humanity is such that, wherever our will is focused, we do what we can with what we have whenever possible to fulfill it. In order to unite a society then, we have to bring its members as close to the same goals as possible, by attempting to ensure that every member has the ‘same’, is given the same amount of time to work with it, and is provided with as close to the same abilities and/or opportunities as possible. Not to state that equality will extinguish conflict, as Humans do require conflict to grow; to learn life lessons and to challenge themselves. However, there is a difference between destructive conflict and constructive conflict. Destructive conflict is when the “winner” gains from the loss of another. Constructive conflict is when the “winner” gains from understanding their own losses or near losses against themselves, as in failing to live up to self-expectations derived from a societal norm. This type of conflict is progressive and should be included in a rational government, so what we have to establish then is a government that can provide its members with equality, opportunity, and potential for growth through various methods, including constructive conflict which will be primarily supported by way of qualitive competition. The following concepts are the components necessary for constructing a rational government that embodies these principles; a government I refer to as a Qualitive Social Republic.

The Qualitive Republic Assembly

The Qualitive Republic Assembly is a governing body composed of select members of the society who are deemed appropriate to develop laws, policies, and regulations, and manage all critical aspects of the society without straying from the necessary constitutional framework, which the society is based upon. All decisions made within the Assembly must succeed in a majority vote. Selection of the Assembly members will be decided on by way of open competition of all participating citizens. Entrance into the competition will have no fee, and the competition is to be a collection of surveys, tests, psychological reviews, and events and activities that highlight the contestants’ skill level in the qualities that are decidedly necessary and appropriate for a position of rational governance as stated in the fore-mentioned constitution; the underlying philosophy being that citizens who are to become Assembly members must be well-qualified and able to demonstrate this. The Assembly will function in terms of a set amount of years after which the members must again take part in the competition if they wish to continue their positions. The justification for this framework is as such: In an anarchic nation, there would be no governing body, and this would result in more of a tribal democracy where each community would be in charge of coming to communal agreements in what constitutes appropriate behavior. In a communist nation, the inclination is that all members of the nation would have an equal say in this same type of communal agreement of behavior, but concerning the governing of the entire nation, which would be much closer to a true democracy, but much more difficult to organize and maintain. Lastly, there is the idea of representational democracy, which is really a system that attempts to organize democracy into a more concise and efficient format. Despite the flaws in the practice of these structures, the largest problem lies in the fact that all these are depending on democracy and the equality of every individual's opinion. This is a problem because, as in all social matters and businesses, not every individual is qualified to be a decision maker and so it would not be rational to put these individuals in such positions. Rational qualities include such things as the minimization of prejudice, cognitive long-term planning abilities, situational compassion and understanding, selflessness, and the consideration and incorporation of criticisms, among many other things, and it is quite apparent that not all people are equal in their levels of these abilities. However, if a nation is governed by too few people and without a representational check and balance system or a test of qualifications, such as in a dictatorship, there is no way to assure that the interests of the people are taken into consideration in the development of that society. Taking a general Democratic vote based solely on apparent character and campaigns, as in a common representational government, however, can actually result in a much less progressive or ethical government than a dictatorship, as character campaigns tend to support the candidates who can afford the biggest campaign, and those with the greatest capacity for manipulation and deceit, which are some of the qualities that should never exist amongst the members of a rational government. It is for these reasons that an Assembly consisting of qualified individuals who are under the constraints of appropriate check and balance systems appears to be the best form of government to remain progressive and sustainable while continuing to be directed toward the interests of the society as a whole.

General-Representative Under-Assembly

As the primary check and balance system for the Qualitive Assembly, the Under-Assembly will consist of a collection of one randomly selected willing individual from each community or state in the society, whose jobs will be to ensure that corruption is kept out of the Republic. To achieve this, the under-republic will be in charge of reviewing all decisions, financial transactions, and political agendas of the Assembly, and will have the power to veto any decision made by the Assembly by way of success in a majority vote. Still, there must be measures taken to ensure that the Under-Assembly does not become corrupt itself, either on its own accord or by persuasion from the Assembly. This is why the members are chosen at random, and why the duration of these positions are to be a fraction of the term for members of the Assembly. This should minimize the chance of corrupt interpersonal relations with members of the Assembly, and diminish incentive for long-term corrupt agendas within the Under-Assembly itself (which is a problem in many representational democratic systems). To aid in their purpose, the Under-Assembly will have at their disposal investigation teams and close ties to the media. Other important functions of the Under-Assembly will be to preserve the existence and accuracy of the true democratic appeal, and for each member to hold a seat on their local Qualitive Community Planner Boards, and maintain an open line of communication between these planner boards, the other members of the Under-Assembly, the media, and the Assembly itself.

Qualitive Community Planner Boards

The community planner boards are small governmental bodies set up to manage local issues such as construction plans, community cultural efforts, housing and educational placement, and career organization. Member positions will be decided on by the same type of qualitive competition as the Assembly, and will hold terms of equal length. Decisions will also be decided on by members in a majority vote. The heads of local authoritive bodies will also have reserved chairs on these boards.

True Democratic Appeal

In light of the level of technology in our present world situation, it is finally possible to obtain an efficient true democratic process for large populations. Each citizen in the society will be given one secure, anonymous (yet traceable under certain cause) digital disagreement vote to be cast toward every decision of the Community Planner Boards, the Under-Assembly, and the Assembly, if they so choose to disagree with the decision. A decision posting will be put up every month detailing all decisions of all three groups in each community, and votes may be cast during a certain period thereafter. Upon a particular high percentage of disagreement votes returned, the decision in question will be vetoed. This ensures that the policy makers, even if somehow corrupted, cannot make any decisions that are completely against the majority of the citizens’ interests. This vote can also be utilized at the end of each year to signify a desire to remove any particular policy-making member from their position. Again, only if the percentage of votes exceeds a certain high limit, will a removal be enacted. Keeping this at a high percentage ensures that the opinions of the qualified will not be discouraged by the opinions of a large amount of possibly unqualified citizens, until the amount reaches one that symbolizes the interests of the sure majority.

Unaffiliated Non-Profit Media

One of the primary sources of propaganda, conspiracy, and societal manipulation in all kinds of societies is affiliated, profit-seeking media. When the media can be swayed by outside forces, a barrier is created between the citizens and the government, and corruption is allowed to spawn. By creating news/media groups that are all equally and continually paid with quarterly financial reviews so that no extra income can sway the coverage, and having the competency and honesty of the media groups under constant supervision of the Assembly, other media groups, and the common citizens, the good intentions and proper goals of these groups will be maintained. This will be beneficial in promoting honesty and discouraging corruption in every governing body, as the truth about what goes on in every political transaction will be made public, and the public can respond immediately, as they have been given the popular-vote veto power over their governing members. Also, it is in the nature of reporters to cover the most controversial events, so any political event that seems out of the ordinary will not go unnoticed.

Controlled Capitalism

In examining capitalism, I find that I agree quite thoroughly with Marx’s critique. It is an economic format that is self-destructive and unethical. And based on my previous definition, it is quite clearly an irrational format as well. It is self-destructive because the capitalists are given the freedom to expand and produce without limit, causing unhealthy fluctuations in supply and demand, and because it is commodity-based and many of the businesses’ survival depends on the sale of completely unnecessary and wasteful items. It is unethical because it does not support an equality between the effort of the workforce and the wage-value of that effort, and because it profits off of keeping a segment of the population unemployed and desperate, and truly on account of the cheap labor chase involved that exploits workers in undeveloped countries to a horrifying extent. However, it does seem to be a good system for making new and useful technologies available to the public, and for sustaining a profit margin, which helps reinforce the economic structure of the society. To make this economic format into a rational one, all that needs to be done then is to place it under the direct control and management of a rational government, as opposed to a citizen capitalist. Controlled capitalism is achieved when the profit margin is not based on effort-inequality and the exploitation of the workforce, but on the voluntary agreement of the workforce to reserve a portion of their earnings in a state fund that will be used to benefit the community. It is achieved when there is a mandatory implementation of highly ethical import and foreign labor standards, and the businesses are running most efficiently by employing and utilizing the production capabilities of all citizens, leaving an unemployment rate of 0%. It is achieved when businesses are only creating goods that are useful and necessary to the society, and there are aggressively high standards on production waste limits and product quality testing. Most importantly, controlled capitalism is achieved when all businesses are under the supervision of a rational qualified governing body and subject to reform upon probable cause. In this type of economic format, decisions about the businesses will be made by the managers of the businesses who are elected through qualitive competition, and will be subject to popular disagreement percentage veto amongst the workers of the businesses. All decisions are also subject to the discretion and direction of the Community Planning Board if necessary, as they provide the guidelines for all businesses in the community to begin with. The most crucial and socialistic aspect of controlled capitalism is that, regardless of position, career, or education, all citizens of the society will earn the exact same daily wage. This includes all managerial, media, and governmental positions. The justification for this is in total agreement with the ideals of a rational society. If there is no extra profit to be had in any position, no one will go into a position for the sake of profit. This will guarantee that most every position is filled by someone who actually wants to have the responsibilities or freedoms that accompany each position, which will not only help to extinguish corruption in various positions, but also boost the level of appreciation and pride in those positions. As far as positions that are noticeably more difficult or universally unsatisfying, there may not be as many hours required in a day of this kind of work as a trade off for people who see the extra free time as worthwhile. Equal wages should aid in preventing class barriers to arise, and also in crime prevention as with less reason for jealousy and less differences in amounts of accumulated wealth, the motivation for such behaviors should taper off. The placement for all jobs that don’t require competition to obtain, as well as career transfers and promotions, will be decided by way of prospect-directed education.

Prospect-Directed Education

In Prospect-Directed Education, children would be brought up through some manner of free and equal general public education system, where directly thereafter they would be given a choice to either be placed into a job position that does not require education, based as closely on preference as possible, or apply for university coursework. In applying, students must express the degrees they wish to obtain and the motivation for doing so. There will be limit caps on the amount of people excepted into each field-program in proportion to estimated job openings in those fields. The university system is to be viewed as a type of industry in that it will recognize education as a product developed to enhance the society, and all students will be paid the same standard daily wage as other workers to show up consistently and learn actively. Quarterly reviews will be made to assess levels of effort and achievement. Students who are performing at an unacceptable level will be immediately placed into a lower education-level job position and must wait a full year to reapply. Application will remain open to any citizen of any age or job position for those who wish to switch careers or seek education-level promotions in their field, however, for every year of attendance at a university, two years must be spent in the workforce before applying for additional degrees. Also, no citizen can remain enrolled in a university for more than four years at a time. Upon obtaining a degree, preference-based job placement will immediately take place, and if no preferred jobs are available, graduate students will be given the opportunity to request job transfers every following year. One of the underlying principles here, primarily in agreement with Marx, is that humans are naturally progressive and creative, so even though they won't be paid more for performing a higher education-level job, considering there is no financial penalty in attending a university, people will naturally want to educate themselves for the sake of education, and in order to work in a higher education-level career where there is more opportunity to exercise their creativity and expertise. This kind of educational structure should provide all citizens with an equal opportunity to educate themselves in the directions they desire, and an equal opportunity for placement in careers pertaining to their fields of study, which should encourage personal development and contentment amongst all members of the society.

Culture Grants

Many cultural and artistic opportunities will exist within the regular job market, such as sports, journalism, illustration, dance, and audio/video entertainment production, but it is well recognized that many of the artistic works of wonder throughout history have been a product of independent parties given the time and opportunity to experiment and create without jurisdiction. In a Qualitive Social Republic, the necessity for such creative freedoms and the worth of cultural artwork is well understood. In light of this, all citizens are given an equal opportunity to apply for Culture Grants. In applying, citizens must propose what type of artwork they plan to create, how long it might take and the approximate cost, and defend the merit and intent of the proposed piece. Artists whose applications are accepted will be given the requested amount of time off from their regular jobs to complete their works, and the works will become public property to be placed and admired in the community in which the artist resides. Upon completion of the art or upon the proper fund proposal attachment, artists will be reimbursed or granted in advance, the cost of supplies. Again, the artists will continue to receive the standard daily wage for work in the arts, and there will be quarterly reviews to ensure progress of the art. If progress is not being made at an acceptable or understandable rate, artists will be placed back into their previous job positions and must wait a minimum of three years to reapply. This opportunity should also encourage creativity and personal and cultural development amongst all members of the society.

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These concepts, though quite summarized here, if implemented correctly, should allow for the cultivation of an ethical, progressive, and sustainable rational government, and an equal, cultural, and promising society. There are still a few major items that must be discussed, such as the judicial system, religious practices, general foreign policies, and primarily how to go about establishing this type of society within the conflict of the modern world, but these topics are large in themselves, and are to be covered in the theoretical expansion of this paper.