Bureaucracy and The Meaning of Democracy
Fundamental reports relevant to today's problems and to a better future
People are encouraged to study the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Tito, as if within these could be found the ultimate and complete answer to the oppression and exploitation we are all subjected to in varying degrees. But our lives, and the oppressor's knowledge and techniques, are now very different.
So we need to apply the knowledge in their works to present conditions, need to show people how to free themselves from oppression and exploitation, and how to retain the gained freedom.
For example, as far as I know it was Karl Marx who said that there would first need to be, and come, the dictatorship of the proletariat, but that then the compulsion of the dictatorship would in due course whither away, that then 'democratic communism' would remain. But the Chinese and the Russian forms of 'dictatorship of the proletariat' have so far refused to wither away!
Manfred Davidmann outlined the battlefield, the real struggle, in his report 'Multinational Summits and Agreements, Top-level Decision-taking and Democracy', in these terms:
Participative (democratic) organisation rests on the population electing representatives, on the basis of each person having one vote. Representatives are responsible to, and accountable to, the population for putting into effect policies decided by the population.
What underlies participative organisation (democracy) is decision-taking by the people at the level of the people.
What needs to be stressed is that in a participative (democratic) organisation policies are decided by a well-informed population at the level of the population and that policies then become binding on management or government.
And representatives, governments or government officials do not have the authority or right to reduce or sign away the participative (democratic) rights of the electors, of the population.
In an authoritarian organisation, the policy decisions are taken at the top or near the top by the hierarchy (establishment) and are binding on the organisation's members. Decision-taking at the top is sometimes referred to as 'deciding centrally'. Authoritarian organisation is the opposite of democracy and underlies dictatorship.
So what we see is conflict between authoritarian minds wishing to dominate, control and exploit on the one hand and, on the other hand, citizens wishing to maintain and improve the standard of living and quality of life for the population as a whole.
And the real struggle is not between political left and right, but is a struggle for participation, that is for the right of the population to be well-informed and to take the decisions which then become binding on management or government.
Manfred Davidmann is an internationally well-known and respected scientist and author of a number of books and reports which have had and are having considerable impact. His work usually breaks new ground and opens up new understanding and is written in meaningful and easily understood language. Outstanding is that his work is generally accepted as factual, objective and unbiased.
The Site Overview page has links to all individual Subject Index Pages which between them list the works by Manfred Davidmann which are available on the Internet, with short descriptions and links for downloading.
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