[#93>US#239]:3.6=#59 P#93: #0.VT,Locke,Iceland dir dem. Taiwan-Japan-China. Korea! Failed states, US Gulag? GOP. Gorbachev. Nutrinos. To old home.

P#93: Taiwan for Peace & Democracy: Japan-Taiwan-China: http://tinyurl.com/ljfba (5) Ah, Koreans: http://tinyurl.com/h5ev9 Failed & Rogue states: http://tinyurl.com/fkbvv USA Gulag? http://tinyurl.com/q9qmp God's Own Party: http://tinyurl.com/sxw6a US 'Intoxicated': http://tinyurl.com/kdcjc Nutrinos & beyond: http://tinyurl.com/obfn3 Nature of Universe: http://tinyurl.com/rmqje Steady rain continues, mild: Up 5:35, 9:25, Mei out & in thrice. To banks, office, old home for mails. Answer [sp]: #0. 12:43am soon to quit, Jun in, bed 1:35. #0. "Vermont town meetings] Locke's & Icelandic systems #1001": "" [Tsai 06.4.3=1 #1] Thanks a lot. Items 0-3 here: 0) About Vermont town meeting direct democracy: What are the basic requirements of its practices and pre-conditions required? How could it be successful? For example, powerful mitias infested nations? 1) About "a well governed central authority" of Egypt and China: I often point to the rise of totalitarian system to the necessity of the control of continental flood, which was how the incredibly continuously long and oppressive China and the Chinese civilization was born, and once born maintained and revived very tenaciously with extremely cruel control, almost could not be destroyed from within. Tyranny is very difficult to be overthrown. 2) About Lock's system of central government answerable to town meeting: Is the rather remarkable but finally failed British Empire based on its "parliamentary system" without adopting Locke's system after seriously considered Locke's system of 100s? How much or how it was influenced by Locke's system of making "larger governmental bodies answerable to the town meetings (everything done at higher levels has to be ratified by a majority of the town meetings)"? Could it be applied to a continental government like the USA? 3) About Iceland system of selectively employed private law agencies replacing the executive branch of a central government: Could it be applied to contemporary world of super and big powers? ================ Me.. wrote: In a message dated 4/2/06 1:16:52 PM, bbcweb writes: > Yes, I have persistently argued that true democracy is possible only >if:> > 1) a signigicant portion of "direct democracy" is maintained, and >> 2) the true political and economic power is held by small-size democracy. > > > Could there be any way any nations or peoples could enjoy real democracy >avoiding those 2 conditions? No wonder some Vermont peoples are seeking >for a way out now? >> Town meetings only work on a small scale. They could be used in a lot of places, including large cities, by simply dividing the city up into reasonable size self-governing neighborhoods. You might also want to check out Iceland, which uses a system of direct democracy supplemented by the world's oldest continuous democratically elected legislative body. John Locke proposed a system of 100s (which I have previously described -- check out the archives here). Locke's system was seriously considered before Great Britain decided on its current parliamentary system. Locke's system has never been used anywhere, but in theory it would make larger governmental bodies answerable to the town meetings (everything done at higher levels has to be ratified by a majority of the town meetings). Although I am a fan of local government, I should point out that there are some things that can only be done by a large central government (such as the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo program's race to the Moon) and many other very useful things that are most efficiently done on a large central scale. The best examples of the utility of a well governed central authority are ancient Egypt and ancient China. Ancient Egypt had two long periods (about 250 years int he Old Kingdom and about 450 years in the New Kingdom) in which a powerful central government went on the world's largest and grandest public works construction projects. While the pyramids are the most famous results of the Old Kingdom, the public works extended to all of the needs of a civilization. Great roads systems. Great docks systems (especially useful in a nation lined up on one large river). Storage of grain for feeding people during droughts, earthquakes, and other natural disasters (they maintained enough grain to feed every citizen for seven years). Canal systems (including a canal from the Indian ocean to the Nile River, still the longest canal ever made). Botanical and zoological gardens (including a botanical garden larger than the state of Rhode Island). School systems (including universal free public education and the first university system). Libraries (including the famous Great Library at Alexandria). And massive amounts of public art. Andd lots more. The Chinese didn't do very many large scale construction projects (other than the central city and the Great Wall of China), but the strong central government provided a uniform system of business law that was the same throughout the nation, as well as other bureaucratic systems useful for the infrastructure of a large empire. Of course when a central government goes bad, it adversely affects everyone. The ends of the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom of ancient Egypt can all be traced to really bad decisions by the Pharaoh causing a collapse of an entire nation. ""