Chapter 10-I-d
'Sunshine' Access to All Communications, at Every Level


Besides devising an equitable system for electing representatives to represent a diverse cross section of Local Group viewpoints and opinions, we imagine other measures that can be designed to increase the accountability of representatives to their constituents, and also measures by which the decisions issued by District Congresses, or State and National Congresses, can be subject to review by the citizen-members of Local Groups.

The business conducted in all District, State, and National Congresses will be conducted in a manner similar to that through which business in Local Groups is conducted. An interactive internet-based forum for general discussion at the appropriate Congress level, and a more formal ‘In Session’ forum, perpetually ‘called to order’, for conducting Congressional business at each level, will be maintained as they are at the Local Group level. We imagine a ‘sunshine policy’ by which these forums, (including their fully posted, and fully searchable, archives), will always be fully open for auditing by any citizen-member, with only representatives to the various Congresses having the privilege to post messages, (or vote, etc), on the forums at their respective levels. This will allow for all citizen-members to have access to remain abreast of the agenda, discussions, votes, and all other general proceedings, at every level of the legislative hierarchy, and to easily monitor the performance of their own representatives at every Congress level.

Communications between citizen-members of Local Groups and their representatives to the District Congresses will always be easily available in the Local Groups’ discussion forums. This should allow ample opportunity for representatives at that level to be publicly held to account for their votes and other communications in the District Congress.

Since many representatives from the District level to higher levels will not necessarily be members of the Local Groups whose interests they are charged with representing, (at least according to the prototype scheme outlined in chapter 10-I-c), other channels of direct communication between the citizen-members of Local Groups and representatives to State and National Congresses will have to be created, staffed with presiding officers and moderators, and maintained. A well-organized and well-moderated communications network, facilitated through software that automates many operational chores that would otherwise be impossibly burdensome, can adequately provide for the free flow of the three basic types of vital channels of communications, bottom-up, (from the many to the few), top-down, (from the few to the many), and side-to-side, (from the many to the many), to and between every level of the hierarchical structure.

Top-down communications will quite naturally take care of themselves, but the basic principle of access to direct channels of communications between constituents and representatives at every level, (bottom-up communications), as well as reasonable and effective access for all citizen-members to communicate with all other citizen-members, (side to side communications), must be met.

In this day and age of miraculously facilitated interactive communications, to which everyone connected to the Internet has easy access, we can surely imagine an intricately interconnected, and fully interactive, communications network, regulated by fair and impartial rules of participation and general behavior, which can provide for the vital channels of communications in all directions at every level. To build such a network will be an arduous (and possibly expensive) task, (especially to develop the software), but if it is well designed, with advanced software tools to adequately support it at every level, it can function smoothly with a minimal degree of management and oversight.


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