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Evaluative Democracy |
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Evaluative Democracy is a democratic political system based on the usage of citizen evaluation committees to determine who are the political representatives.
Evaluative Democracy is a political way of thought based on the
Evaluative Democracy, by emphasizing the collective interest, is about
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| Books on Evaluative Democracy |
| Anti-Election by Mr. Stephen Garvey: Shows that Electoral Democracy, regardless of form, is undemocratic and a means for global control |
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Anti-Election:Pro-Determination 122 pages (Perfect Bound) 16.25 U.S.A. (not including shipping) for
North American and international orders Excerpt--Foreword (html file)
Readers--share your views of Anti-Election at reviews (The reviews will be posted.)
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***VIDEO of Stephen Garvey on Anti-Election
Duration of (shortened) video: 58 seconds. Double click 'play' button to start video. (No download time.)
*** FULL VIDEO: To view the entire video of Stephen Garvey see Full Video
1.the nature of elections
Anti-Election includes bibliographical references.
Anti-Election's unrelenting inspection of Electoral Democracy exposes it as an autocratic hierarchy of (undemocratic) political power defined by the ability and means of dominant political parties and candidates and their supporters to influence and manipulate the people.
Review:
"The Age of Reason project - the quantification and rationalization of all things - is in crisis. As we settle into the new millennium, this isn't a very controversial view. Powerful forces of both progressive and reactionary stripes confront elements of this on all fronts, from liberal capitalism to modernity. Radical Islam and rightwing Christianity both openly attack the rational consensus and its institutions, from the World Bank to the UN, the IMF to the European Union.
As the highest political attainment of the Age of Reason, democracy also faces significant challenges to its legitimacy. Western democracies increasingly confront, with varying degrees of success, oligarchic pressures and declining voter involvement, while power formerly held by nation-states seeps into the hands of multinational corporations. Democracy, in a manner nearly unimaginable in the 20th Century, has to defend its egalitarian claims from other forms of voter consent.
This manifests itself in, for example, the Bolivarian revolution socialism of the emerging Chavists democracies. Historian J.P. Nettl describes an approach to the concent of the governed of which Hugo Chavez would approve. This "view of democracy postulated action first and foremost - action which anticipated the expressed or if necessary deduced needs of the population: a commitment not a mandate. Such a conception might short measurable criteria like majority votes, which bourgeoise democracy valued so highly, but it was long on unmeasurable but much more real links of action which bound leaders and mass."
Further, we are increasingly reminded that, contrary to the Bush Administration view, democratic elections routinely put in power anti-democratic regimes. Elections in Russia, Iran, and the Palestinian Authority prove once again a lesson that Senator John C. Calhoun explained in 1851 in A Disquisition on Government: majoritarian democracies are routinely comfortable making aggressive war and tyrannizing minorities in their midst. And while President Bush may believe that democracies don't fight wars, much evidence exists to the contrary.
Conscious of the crisis of legitimacy that liberal democracy faces, author Stephen Garvey has chosen to light a candle rather than curse the dark. His new book, Anti-Election, outlines a different approach to democracy and creating a legitimate government with the consent of the governed. His books lays out his idea of evaluative democracy, a method of selecting elected representation by creating citizen review commissions that determine what is most important to the society to be governed, questioning aspirants to governing positions, and evaluating those answers for their applicability to and insight into the issues that are determined to be most important. Through a series of collaborative evaluations, the best people would be chosen to serve.
The book is structured as a series of presentations about Garvey's ideas to the UN General Assembly. This doesn't make for very engaging reading - you sometimes feel like you're reading a 500-page Power Point presentation - but it does make clear Garvey's position. His ideas merit discussion and his efforts to find humane alternatives to the democratic elections of bourgeoisie liberal democracy are laudable.
Ultimately, Garvey's views belong to a class of ideas that also includes the work of Brazil's Partido dos Trabalhadores (the Worker's Party or PT), a political party who has inaugurated municipal budgeting through a series of citizen meetings, a process called the orcamento participativo or participatory budget. This approach, discussed in Hillary Wainwright's Reclaim the State(2003), merits consideration by the serious student of Garvey's approach.
Where it would be easy to give in to despair, Stephen Garvey makes a valiant effort to build a new form of just government. While the first part of his book, which diagnoses the crisis of liberal bourgeoisie democracy, is ultimately more convincing than his prescription, Garvey deserves credit for trying to design a viable alternative to a system we all know to be broken."
Keith McCrea Verbicide magazine (20th issue)
The Political Evaluator 114 pages (Perfect Bound)
11.90 U.S.A. (not including shipping) for
North American and international orders Reviews
Excerpt (pdf file)
Readers--share your views of The Political Evaluator at reviews (The reviews will be posted.)
Before a prestigious society made up of top academics and distinguished professionals, Peter Thompson, a publicly unknown thinker and visionary, presents eight lectures which critiques elections and then puts forward a unique and more viable option where the hierarchy of political power is replaced by a new democratic paradigm of More Reasonableness (a fully elucidated process in which ideas rather than ballots are cast).
What ensues is a lively, thorough, diverse dialogue, which touches on the very bases of society and democracy.
Review Comments:
“A somewhat controversial yet visionary interpretation of democracy, The Political Evaluator is well researched, well presented and encourages readers to think beyond the existing limitations of our current western political system. Garvey proposes a thought provoking ideology, worthy of serious consideration and unavoidable deliberation.”
Tina Cobb
"The Political Evaluator presents a bold and very needed alternative to our present western socio-political climate. This book needs to be read not just by those who operate in the theoretical or philosophical, but by those who are living in and acting in this world we all inhabit."
Ethan Canter (Canadian Writer, Poet)
©2009 evaluativedemocracy.com All rights reserved.
* 3 part Video of Garvey's lecture on "Re-Designing Democracy" (includes question and answer) (March 28, 2007):
(Video recorded on January 17, 2007):
Anti-Election is a timely, controversial, progressive critique of Electoral Democracy. The book is presented in eight presentations, which are based on actual events and facts.
Through the persona of Thompson, a philosopher presenting at the United Nations, the book examines:
2.the globalization of elections
3.the effects of Electoral Demcracy on humanity as a whole,
4.and offers a viable, more democratic alternative to elections.
Mr. Stephen Garvey
The Political Evaluator: Shatters the myth that elections are democratic, and offers a viable, democratic alternative to elections.
by Stephen Garvey
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13.65 CAN
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