The draft of FixGov.

This chapter will focus on our capacity to act on the basis of public concern and to become an involved citizen. In this chapter we will explore our political alternatives and the possibilities of a (world wide) democracy using the political system to achieve a socially just and sustainable world.

Important Political Issues

What are the crucial issues? Things that advance social justice, democracy, and environmentally sound policies are your allies for positive change. Things that concentrate wealth and power into a few hands—whether in the name of good or ill—and pollute or waste the earth's resources are your foes. Examples of the issues you should support include:

- the creation of constitutional, democratic institutions;
- the non-violent resolution of conflicts;
- basic human rights for all people;
- environmental protections that sustain local ecosystems, including recycling of wastes, alternative energy sources, environmentally appropriate building technologies, habitat and species restoration, effective monitoring of ecosystems, and sustainable local agriculture;
- spiritual systems and beliefs that teach peace, tolerance, and the close relationship and responsibility of humanity to the earth;
- alternative forms of education, including environmental education;
- voter initiatives that can bypass representative bodies and place issues directly before the voters;
- open government, including keeping all meetings and records public and "transparent" subject to the public's scrutiny and criticism;
- public financing of political campaigns to keep money from "special interests" from having an impact on the government's ability to do the people's work;
- a free press, whether publicly or privately owned, and broadcast media (radio, television) which honour free speech, lively debate, and promote civic responsibilities like new programs, candidate debates and political forums in the public interest as part of their license to broadcast;
- democratic regulation of all private use of the "public commons", including parkland owned by government, air and water, or other things owned in common, requiring that private individuals or corporations using them pay for that use, take care of them, and leave them in as good or better condition than before;
- "true-costing" of any products or industrial processes that might cause environmental degradation, including in their costs the regulation and clean-up of any pollution, and use of those costs to perform the cleanup;
- the creation of agencies to monitor the environment, detect pollution and polluters, and to charge and fine them the amount needed to cleanup any resulting pollution;
- redefinition of the legal status of the corporation, making corporate officers personally liable for any violations of law, opening up corporate records to public scrutiny, limiting the size (and size of the market share) a corporation can attain, and making it illegal for corporations to donate to political campaigns;
- promote democratic, transparent international organizations to replace current institutions like the World Bank, WTO, and IMF.

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