factsheet 8 handshakes

what is it?

It's a new idea about how we elect people to represent us. Our current systems of government have not delivered lasting peace, prosperity for most of us, or solutions to dangerous global situations such as environmental damage, food security, corruption, war and the accumulation of nuclear weapons.

Dictatorships are out of fashion - they are falling, or becoming weaker everywhere, even in China. But modern democracies aren't really democratic, because money buys power (professional lobby organisations, ownership of the media, corporations threatening to take their business elsewhere, personal friendships, ex-ministers getting jobs with corporations, corporate board members in government, political donations, and sometimes political and corporate leaders are the same people - eg Silvio Berlusconi, and most of the US cabinet). So voting doesn't work, because real power lies with money, which isn't elected.

And revolution doesn't work because a) there's always a blueprint for a new society - a utopian vision, and revolutionaries are often willing to use violence on anyone who gets in their way (Stalin, Mao et al), and b) they always forget their promise to re-distribute power after they've seized it.

Pure democracy might not be a good idea either. Plato said that rule by the majority wouldn't work, as most people don't really understand the issues. This is still true - more people are interested in sport and celebrities than politics. And if there were a referendum on every issue, capital punishment could return, or homosexuality could become illegal (or at least discriminated against). Majority decisions are not necessarily right. The majority used to support slavery, for example. Plus, if there is a range of options, the one with the most votes may only represent a minority.

We have to have a better way of choosing our representatives. Three crucial qualities for leadership are surely intelligence, compassion, and incorruptibility. And the only way that those qualities can be assessed is by face-to-face contact. Here's the idea:

1. Imagine a monthly meeting with 15 of your nearest neighbours; not a business meeting, but a barbecue, film, walk, talk, picnic – a social, so that people get to know each other.
2. Most of us are perceptive enough to pick out a person that we think is intelligent, compassionate, and incorruptible. The person that most people in the group think fits that bill goes forward to represent the group at the next level – a meeting of 15 representatives from 15 groups of neighbours.
3. The process is repeated in 8 stages, from neighbours to world!
4. Another idea of Plato's is that our leaders don't get much money – maybe the median wage for their country. Their reward is that they are steering the human ship.
5. The system would have to grow organically. It can't start at the top, because the people already at the top won't allow it. And it can't be started at grassroots, because of political apathy.
6. So we start in the middle. We need just 15 committed people in every town, who meet and send someone to the next level, and so on to the top.
7. We'd then have a global system whose base would be the town level. It should produce very good leaders, with a high internet / media profile.
8. More people would want to take part, so meetings below the town level would be organised, to send representatives to replace existing town members; and so on down to grassroots.
9. When the system is in place, there could be a consolidation period to see how it works, and what kind of people rise to the top. It could act as advisor to the current system, but could eventually replace it if people stop voting and participate in the new system instead.
10. Ideas can be passed up from grassroots, and explanations of decisions passed down; but ultimately we will trust our representatives more, because they were chosen directly by us, via face-to-face contact.
    

• democracy upgrade – we've had universal suffrage, secret ballots and checks and balances – this is the next step
• better leaders – chosen for intelligence, compassion and integrity, not ambition; they can't be corrupted with money, because they won't have any; these will be better people to make decisions about issues that could have devastating effects for all of us – e.g. GM crops, conflicts or nuclear weapons
• it's a system designed to end war
• face-to-face is a better way of assessing representatives
• neighbours get to know each other, look out for each other, swap and share things etc.
• everyone has a group of people to discuss aspects of their life with
• reduces fear - neighbours get to know each other, and the threat of war is reduced
• next step in the development of a (Jungian) global consciousness, following on from democracy itself, the internet and Wikipedia – just 8 handshakes from the roots to the top of the tree
• we can get leaders who will make good decisions for everybody, not just themselves or their own people
• no parties or campaigns or left v right; there's nothing left or right about having better leaders, and 'vote for me!' will disqualify you (it's good qualities we're after, not ambition)
• there's no blueprint or utopian plan of how society should be; we just get the best leaders, and they can decide
• who really understands history, economics, science, law, political philosophy? There's just not enough time. Let's have non-partisan, non-corrupt and extremely intelligent leaders, with a system for feeding in our opinions and ideas. In the current system, are the people making the big decisions intelligent and impartial enough to make the right ones?
• freed from the shackles of striving for military security and competing with other countries, our leaders will actually be able to think freely, to weigh up different paths, and to make rational decisions, rather than being in an economic and military straightjacket
• people won't have to have a deep understanding of all the issues – they just have to be a good judge of character - and most people are

The Transition Network and the Tea Party movement have shown that in an age when ideas can spread virally, large movements can quickly spring up at the town (i.e. the middle) level. The practicalities of how the system works will eventually be decided by using the system itself, but we need to have some rules in place to actually get it started.

Here's what you can do straight away:

1. read more details, practicalities and objections; then debate, criticise, and suggest improvements on the forum
2. print out the factsheet (pdf) and distribute it, talk to friends, send them a link; let's get debating

We'll then build a dedicated website and produce a book. We'll ask other groups to promote the idea and link to it, and write articles for magazines and newspapers. On the new website will be a wiki to help people find their nearest group, or start one. There probably needs to be a constitution (with things that can't be changed by the leaders alone – e.g. receiving only the median wage). Everything else can be decided using the system itself. We just need to start, and see what happens.

resources

more - details, practicalities, objections, forum

printable version
of this factsheet (pdf)

Plato, in his book 'Republic' outlines a system for getting the best possible leaders - his idea was that philosophers should be leaders (maybe because he was a philosopher?); he has been accused of being a forerunner of fascism - but we have to remember that Athens was a city-state in danger from invasion from other city-states, and his vision offered more freedom than any other in the following 2000 years. And anyway, we can now take what's useful from his philosophy and reject what's not

a world of dwindling resources and burgeoning population, split into competing blocks is going to be a very dangerous world indeed; only global institutions can avert the threat of world wars

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, the international collaborative encyclopedia that we can all contribute to. It might have been assumed that this kind of encyclopedia would produce nothing but chaos, instead of the wonderful resource that we now have; 8 handshakes represents a similar collaborative effort to shake up the world of politics - but this time, face-to-face

a Transition meeting in Bedford, UK; the rapid growth of the Transition movement (and the Tea Party movement in the States) has shown that large networks can develop organically at the town level