Last week, German Pirate Party won over 7% of votes and entered the federal state parliament in Saarland. Actually, the party didn’t just managed to enter state parliament after running for election the very first time, it also successfully attracted thousands of non-voters and first-time voters. Meanwhile, the country’s free democrats, the FDP, suffered staggering losses, dropping from 9% to 1%, which is definitely far below the 5% threshold necessary to enter a state parliament.
Due to the party’s networked organization, candidates only need a short timeframe to present themselves at the conferences. The members of the party vote on whether or not to pose further questions, which doesn’t take place very often, but will definitely happen if the candidate is controversial. For example, this happened during the state party conference: one of the candidates running for the election list for the federal state was asked to answer questions about anti-Semitic remarks made by him in a mailing-list. Another one was alleged of bullying his peers in the local group. Both of them received no votes in result.
Such networked structure and organization allows the Pirate Party to involve everyone in the democratic process, where space-time constraints do not matter, thus making it possible to apply crowd sourced intelligence. The party fulfills its idea of democracy, with grass-roots politics letting everyone to be involved in the process and vote for candidates, without delegates.
Aside from the networked nature of the Pirate Party, new members and voters are also attracted by the political topics the party is focused on. Those include civil rights both online and offline, net politics, social justice, education policies and many more.
The Pirate Party heavily criticizes the existing social system, regarding it as being too little for too many. The party also believes that the system imposes restrictions on civil rights and liberties of the country’s unemployed, which are regarded as the weakest members of the state.
The solution to all problems is a system that provides an unconditional basic income, financed through the redistribution of wealth and an overhauled tax system. In other words, the suggested system would allow all citizens to participate in their pursuit of happiness and opportunity.
Due to the party’s networked organization, candidates only need a short timeframe to present themselves at the conferences. The members of the party vote on whether or not to pose further questions, which doesn’t take place very often, but will definitely happen if the candidate is controversial. For example, this happened during the state party conference: one of the candidates running for the election list for the federal state was asked to answer questions about anti-Semitic remarks made by him in a mailing-list. Another one was alleged of bullying his peers in the local group. Both of them received no votes in result.
Such networked structure and organization allows the Pirate Party to involve everyone in the democratic process, where space-time constraints do not matter, thus making it possible to apply crowd sourced intelligence. The party fulfills its idea of democracy, with grass-roots politics letting everyone to be involved in the process and vote for candidates, without delegates.
Aside from the networked nature of the Pirate Party, new members and voters are also attracted by the political topics the party is focused on. Those include civil rights both online and offline, net politics, social justice, education policies and many more.
The Pirate Party heavily criticizes the existing social system, regarding it as being too little for too many. The party also believes that the system imposes restrictions on civil rights and liberties of the country’s unemployed, which are regarded as the weakest members of the state.
The solution to all problems is a system that provides an unconditional basic income, financed through the redistribution of wealth and an overhauled tax system. In other words, the suggested system would allow all citizens to participate in their pursuit of happiness and opportunity.
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