Counterweight
When a party leader gets into parliament, he gets very concrete benefits. He gets:
– power over members of his party which allows him to create regulations
– he gets access to TV so he can convince millions of people of his reasons
– he gets very specific money to live and to achieve his own goals such as election campaign or winning allies
With such equipment, a politician no longer needs citizens – he is able to cope on his own both during the term of office and at the next elections. It is not surprising that pre-election promises are rarely implemented. If we want politicians to be dependent on us, listen to us and not lie, we must have:
– more control over the rules that prevail among us than politicians
– a forum more numerous than the TVP audience on which we will be able to
discuss regardless of the authorities – we must have so much money that it pays off for us, but also so that politicians are not able to ignore the capital we have at our disposal.
Our civic organizations must exist for many terms and constitute a de facto power until we obtain a WIR nationwide. But even then, according to the experience of the Swiss, civic organizations have a role to play. These organizations are there to not give politicians control over the whole situation. For example, in Switzerland, national television is a cooperative to which everyone can sign up and vote at its general meetings.