Foundation for Democratic Advancement
| Upcoming FDA Project in the United States |
"2012 United States Presidential Evaluation" project
Project Information:
Project Title: 2012 United States Presidential Evaluation
Project Location: Local: United States: whole country
Project Summary: 1. Determine the basic, overall priorities of Americans in terms of gov't policies and expenditure. To determine the public priorities, the FDA will form 3 citizen panels made up of a cross-section of Americans. These panels (independent of each other) will evaluate the public input. The panels' findings will then be combined to determine the overall priorities of Americans. Note, the priorities should reflect the collective interest of Americans. 2. The established priorities will be used as a basis to evaluate the Presidential candidates in the 2012 American Presidential election. The 3 citizen panels (again independent of each other) will do detailed evaluations of the main Presidential candidates in terms of their background, incumbency record, vision, and policies/promises, in order to produce a rank/grade of the candidates. The evaluation results would then be shared with the American public, media, and political representatives.
To implemement the project, the FDA will partner with local (American) ngos, which are non-partisan and objective.
Main feature of the project: Democratic Dialogue and Constitutional Processes
Marginalized or Vulnerable Groups: Addressing the needs of marginalized or vulnerable groups is a key objective of the project.
The needs of marginalized groups are critical to the project, because those needs will help form the basic, overall priorities of Americans. To not include a segment of the American public in the project would weaken the credibility of the results. Hence, the FDA has a significant interest in including all segments of the American public in the project.
Project Description:
Problem being addressed: American democracy has been taken over by political money, which manifests itself in the form of political influence and manipulation. Moreover, American democracy is monopolistic through the political domination of the Republican and Democratic parties. The have and have not, and old school US political system, alienates Americans, and it does not allow fair democratic choice and opportunity. To improve American democracy, the dominant role of money, and indirectly political influence and manipulation needs at least to be significantly lessened. The FDA addresses this serious flaw in the American political system by focusing on informing American voters and making political candidates and parties more accountable. In essence to offset political influence and manipulation, the FDA will objectively, non-partisanly, and independently influence the American voter. Ultimately in the end and as they should, Americans will decide who are the better political representatives for America.
Objectives/Purpose:
Key Activities:
Outputs/Deliverable Products:
Results/Outcomes:
Monitoring and Evaluation: Measurement will be by comparative analysis techniques and survey/interview. The project will measure public participation in the political process, voter turnout, voter reasons, and changes in government policies and expenditures. The FDA and its local partners will be responsible for measuring.
Innovation: The project is innovative, because it is using evaluation as a means to improve and strengthen democracy. Also, the project utilizes innovative democratic mechanisms to empower and include the people, and hold political representatives accountable.
Sustainability: The achievements will be maintained by performing subsequent evaluation reports on the next parliamentary and presidential elections, reassessment of the American public's priorities, and pushing for legislation to make the reports and mechanisms a permanent feature of American democracy.
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