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Chapter 6
True Democracy: The Demos, the Fourth Branch of Government

Our constitution limits federal powers to only those specified by the constitution. All unspecified powers remain with the states or with individuals. In a similar manner, the new fourth branch of government would possess only those powers specified to it by one or more new amendments to the constitution. All other federal powers would remain with the three current branches. The nature and limits of the powers specified for the new branch of government would be such that it could not overpower and destroy the other three branches but would compliment and counterbalance them.

The word demos is defined as a noun meaning 1) the common people of an ancient Greek state, and 2) the common people; populace. No plural form and no part of speech other than a noun is offered.

Since this fourth branch of government would be constituted of the entire electorate participating in a direct democratic process, it was named “the demos.” (Instead of the dictionary pronunciation demos with a long “e” as in the word Dee, here the word is pronounced demos as in the word demo.) The four branches of government would be, therefore, the judicial, the executive, the legislative, and the demos. The demos may be thought of as “we the people”¹ because the electorate participating within it would be constituted of all of-age, mentally-competent members of the populace.

This work presents new definitions for the word demos. The principal new definition is as follows:

A demos is a direct democracy branch of government, a nationwide electronic network, in which all of-age, mentally-competent citizens directly deliberate, vote, and achieve consensus on a fixed set of a nation’s key economic and electoral issues, setting limits within which the government and the nation must function and electing to the representative branches of the government bodies of officeholders that demographically resemble and truly represent the entire body of citizens.

The exact usage and meaning of the principal words and ideas in this definition will be made known during the course of this work.

The term consensus has a very specific meaning in the above definition of a demos. Unlike the winner-take-all, majority-rule democracy of old in which the simple majority vote wins and all others lose, the consensus democracy described in this book and practiced by the electorate in the demos results in the consensus of the entire electorate, a moderate “golden mean” that avoids all extremes.

This is possible because the vote tallies for the economic issues included in the demos are processed by computers resulting in mathematical values that are considered to be the electorate’s consensus. And the vote tallies for the electoral issues automatically result in proportional representation of the entire electorate in the representative branches, which may also be looked at as the consensus of the electorate.

A less precise but simpler definition of the word demos for a tiny dictionary might read:

A demos is a branch of government in which all of-age citizens directly vote and achieve consensus on a fixed set of a nation’s key economic issues and elect officeholders to the representative branches of government.

In this work, the word demos may refer to an entire branch of government as in “the judicial, the executive, the legislative, and the demos.” In a more formal reference the word demos may begin with an uppercase letter as in “the Judicial, the Executive, the Legislative, and the Demos.” The word demos may refer only to the electorate of the demos as in “the consensus of the demos.” It may refer to the whole of the physical mechanisms and systems used by the electorate to conduct its direct democratic process as in “the construction of the demos has begun.” The plural form demoses is used as in “all of the world’s demoses.” The possessive form demos’ is used as in “the demos’ procedures.” The word demos is also used as an adjective as in “the demos issues.”

This work principally focuses on a particular demos to be included as a new branch of the American government. But, adapted to the specific needs of other locales, the principles, structures, and functions of the demos discussed in this work could serve as examples during the creation and function of other demoses anywhere in the world and at any level of government.

Contrary to historical and current practice in America, prisoners and people convicted of felonies would also be included in the electorate and participate in the demos. There is no shortage of people among us who do not much agree as to whom the current plutocratic system imprisons. While some of the people in our prisons really belong there, too many people are in prison who do not belong there, and too many people, particularly those who commit high-level, white-collar crimes (crimes committed by the wealthy), are not imprisoned who should be. Our prisons are overpopulated and clogged up by harmless people who have committed victimless crimes. They have never harmed anyone but have only broken one law or another which should not have been written in the first place. They are imprisoned for political rather than criminal reasons. In essence, imprisoning people and taking away their franchise, their right to vote, is simply a way to silence one’s political opposition. Disfranchisement is immoral and it should be made unconstitutional and illegal. The practice of disfranchisement should never have been started in the first place and should be eliminated immediately. One cannot legitimately consider a body or process to be democratic when a significant portion of the potential electorate has been disfranchised.

In the preceding definition of a demos, the phrase all of-age, mentally-competent members of the populace could be variously interpreted. Of-age could be given various meanings by different cultures. An age somewhere within the second half of a person’s teens seems most appropriate.

Instead of mentally-competent one could say mentally-capable or mentally-able. This does not mean that a person would have to pass any kind of mental or competency tests to be eligible for membership in the demos electorate, but only that the person has not been legally, medically, and validly declared to be mentally insane or incompetent, for example, someone who was a babbling idiot and was quite incapable of voting or someone who was comatose.

The term citizens can be variously interpreted, and some interpretations could be construed to mean a relatively minor portion of the population living within the area encompassed by the government. In the city of Athens in ancient Greece only citizens could vote, and a very minor portion of the population was defined to have citizenship.

In this book the term citizens is defined in the very broadest sense to include as much of a nation’s population as humanly and rationally possible. In America the term citizen includes all American born and naturalized citizens including those who are currently traveling or residing outside the country and excludes all foreign visitors, students, and others. As discussed earlier, America’s great shame is its disfranchisement of some of its citizens. That error should be corrected immediately. The body of citizens that participates in the demos is usually referred to as the electorate, the members of the demos, or even simply the demos.

The term social contract means an agreement among individuals, hypothesized by certain philosophers, by which society becomes organized and invested with the right to secure mutual protection and welfare. The principal difficulty with this notion is that nobody within a society ever really reads or consciously enters into such a contract but is born into a society which is already in play and with a government already in place. In America today few people are even cognizant of the concept of a social contract, let alone have participated in “an agreement among individuals.” In truth, the so-called agreement took place among a few privileged white men long ago.

Nevertheless, the concept of a social contract is a good one and could well serve as the centerpiece or heart of a demos. Correctly constructed, a proper social contract would contain the most central or fundamental questions and issues of a society dealing with the relationship among its members. Within the constraints of the limitations placed on it, the electorate of the demos would vote and achieve consensuses on a small group of our most central social issues. (In this work the consensuses of the demos on the issues included in the demos will often be collectively referred to in the singular as simply the consensus of the demos.) This consensus would serve as society’s social contract. Students in school would become well versed in the content and function of this social contract and, when of-age, would consciously enter into the contract and participate as full and equal members of the demos.

The demos consensus and, therefore, society’s social contract would be dynamic, its current state slowly evolving over time. The existence of a peacefully evolving and responsive social contract consented to by the widest possible electorate voting within a demos would reduce the need for and likelihood of revolution.

The relationship of the demos to the other branches of government and to society as a whole would be this: Its current consensus would be our current social contract which, within its limited sphere of power, would set some limits or parameters within which government, business and industry, and private individuals would have to function as they went about their daily business and lives. By amending the constitution it could be made unconstitutional for government to violate the social contract. By the creation of appropriate laws it could be made illegal for business and individuals to violate the social contract.

In addition to a demos in the federal government there could and should be demoses in all state and local governments, each serving as a counter power or balance to other governing entities at each level of government, each configured and functioning in a manner similar to the demos at the federal level (discussed later in the work), and each creating a social contract limited to its area of jurisdiction. Plutocracy exists at all levels of government and social organization, and fairness and justice cannot be adequately improved until all levels of government in all areas have adequate, truly democratic bodies to counterbalance the plutocratic bodies. A given individual would participate in a small local demos, the demos of his or her state, and in the federal demos along with all other members of the federal demos electorate. The same voting terminal hardware and programs (discussed later) would be used at all levels of government. Each demos in which a particular voter participates would have its own pages (discussed later) which are presented to the voter in a style and manner similar to those of the federal demos.

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Beyond Plutocracy - Direct Democracy for America    www.BeyondPlutocracy.com
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Footnote

1  The Constitution of the United States of America begins with the words “We the people . . .” In this work, the phrase “we the people” is used repeatedly and always within quotation marks as a reminder and for emphasis. It should never be forgotten that our government was created in the name of “we the people,” all of the people, and cannot legitimately serve principally the interests of the few. It should also never be forgotten that the phrase “we the people” includes everyone, rich and poor alike. This work is not about the poor rising up against the rich but about all of us rising above our current state and embracing a more perfect union.  1