Organic Habitat-8
5.2. Self governance - C.
Judicial system, Augmented intelligence.
Judicial system, decentralised.
Arbitrators.
Community manager.
Cloudsite.
Community vote.
Community finance.
City Council.
20% refreshed.
State council.
National council.
Direct vote.
The judicial system has undergone very significant transformation.
Laws of the country have been dramatically simplified.
The law can be now understood by the common man.
Most of the law, is written in SIL, the Simple International Language.
This makes it amenable to use, not only to the common man, but also to augmented intelligence.
Now facts and evidence can be presented to augmented intelligence, which can give a first opinion,
in most legal cases.
The human judge however makes the final judgement.
Judges are chosen based on high qualification.
They also need to be persons with very high integrity.
Judges and lawyers are trained to use augmented intelligence, to assist them in their profession.
This takes out most of the routine work, performed by the judiciary.
The judicial system is also decentralised.
Many of the functions related to following rules and regulations, are delegated to the community office.
Each community has a small court.
This court is competent to handle, all kinds of civil and criminal cases, in the community.
It also handles corruption cases.
The judges and lawyers are trained to use augmented intelligence.
Not surprisingly most cases get resolved before coming to court.
The community court has an intimate knowledge of what is happening in the community.
Public records of community members are available to the court.
Most of the cases are decided in a very short period of time.
It is no longer necessary to wait for months and years to get justice.
Thanks to simple laws, augmented intelligence, and competent judges,
justice is available, within a short period of time.
If the litigants are not satisfied with the judgement, they can appeal.
The appeal does not go to a higher court .
It goes to another community court for a second opinion.
Most of the cases are resolved, if the second court gives the same judgement.
Only in rare cases, where there is a split decision, the case goes to the higher courts.
This relieves that number of cases to be handled by higher courts.
They are able to focus and do justice, to far fewer cases.
In summary the number of cases coming to the court is dramatically reduced.
In cases where it does come, justice is dispensed swiftly.
In a society, if it is extremely difficult, to getaway with breaking the law,
it acts as a deterrent.
This results in less violations, and less cases.
The judicial system also makes use of arbitrators.
Arbitrators have qualifications in some specialised aspect of the legal system.
Universities offer specialised courses in various aspects of the law.
Individuals can qualify themselves in some specialised aspect of law.
For example, some arbitrators might qualify themselves in corporate tax,
another might qualify in civil rights, etc.,
Arbitrators might be pursuing some other profession also.
Arbitration could be a part time profession.
In the new work culture many people, pursue more than one profession.
A person for example could be a Bio technology scientist, and a qualified arbitrator in intellectual property.
Qualified arbitrators are empaneled with the judicial system.
A community judge can refer a case to a qualified, empaneled arbitrator.
He could base his judgement based on the opinion of the arbitrator.
Arbitrators help to further decentralise the judicial system.
It also helps to bring in specialised knowledge to every community court.
The community judge with the help of augmented intelligence systems,
and arbitrators is able to provide insightful judgements.
The most important factor in implementing self governance, is the appointment of the community manager.
The community manager is elected by members of the community.
His term usually lasts for five years.
The candidate who aspire to be a community manager, should be a resident of the community.
He should also have a three star qualification, equivalent to a degree, in community management.
Many universities offer this course.
Many talented individuals aspire to acquire this qualification.
The community manager should conform to high ethical standards.
Persons who have been socially irresponsible, or corrupt, are disqualified from being a candidate for community managers.
The community manager is also required to have some experience, as a commune manager, or as a community officer.
The community manager is completely responsible for all aspects of community management.
In traditional management systems, specialisation leads to departmentalisation of management.
Responsibility is diffused among many departments.
This results in an individual having to interface with multiple agencies,
to deal with the issues involved in community living.
Specialised individuals and departments, do have a role to play, in management systems.
It is more important however to integrate the services provided by different departments.
Community manager plays the important role of this integrator.
Since he is responsible for all community management matters, it becomes his responsibility to integrate,
all government functions, with regard to the community.
The community manager, is given the freedom to appoint a team of community officers, to assist him.
These community officers work on a contract basis.
Their term typically coincides with the term of the community manager.
The community manager and the community officers, run the community office.
Community office is located in the community.
Typically it is located in the community corner office.
Every community corner has offices and high rise buildings.
The community office is easily accessible to all community members.
Communication with the community manager and the community office, can be via mail and phone.
The community officers, and manager are easily accessible in person to community members.
The community manager necessarily resides in the community.
He would be a member of the community club, and takes part in community affairs.
He has a conceptual knowledge of the working of various public services, related to the community.
The community manager, is a generalist, an integrator, a people manager, a team player, a planner, and a problem solver.
The compensation paid to the community manager, is comparable to that paid by private business.
The job of the community manager, attracts the best talent from society.
It also has high social standing, and is considered as a very respectable position.
The community manager is the head of all public services, in the community.
He is vested with a large amount of responsibility.
He thus exercises significant authority in the community.
Community manager dedicates himself to improving the quality of life in the community.
He is elected by, and is responsible to the community members, and is a symbol of self governance.
Very often the runner-up in the election to the community manager, is appointed as a deputy to the community manager.
This increases the degree of representation of the community.
For example, if the community manager secured 60% of the votes, of the community members,
and the runner-up secured 30% of the votes, between them they represent 90% of the community.
One of the essential quality of a community manager is to work in a cooperative manner.
They are specially trained in this skill.
He is expected to work in a cooperative fashion with the deputy community manager.
The responsibility of the community manager, is towards all members of the community.
The culture is so ingrained, that even a person who gets 10% of the votes, could be appointed as a community officer.
The quality of harmonious relationships is built into role of the community manager.
One of the objectives of the community manager, is to make transparent all the relevant transactions of the community.
The community office maintains a community cloudsite.
The public services of the community, is outsourced to professional private agencies.
For example, energy distribution, water supply and recycling, avenue maintenance,
park maintenance etc., is outsourced, to professional agencies.
All the terms of this contract are available in the cloudsite.
Development and other projects are also awarded to professional private agencies.
For example projects like, setting up a water recycling plant, construction of a public office building, rebuilding an avenue,
are awarded to professional private agencies.
The community office oversees and monitors the progress of all projects.
This is updated on the cloudsite.
Community members are fully aware, to the level of detail they are interested,
of the status of all projects and services of the community.
In the concept of self governance community members fully involve themselves,
in the development and maintenance of the community.
Any shortcoming in the quality of service, is reported to the community office, and updated in the cloudsite.
Any deviation in the implementation of projects, are also observed by community members,
reported to the community office, and updated in the cloudsite.
Private agencies providing services, or executing projects, are always on their toes, to ensure that the contracted terms are adhered to.
Community members play an active role in monitoring the development and service activities of the community.
The responsibility of managing the community rests with the community manager.
Community manager seeks the view of the community in significant policy issues.
This is done informally in the cloudsite which seeks the view of community members.
Many cases it is done formally by seeking a community vote.
Community members actively involve themselves, and vote on all significant community management matters.
It is even possible to recall a community manager, if members are not satisfied with his performance.
The principle of self governance, starts at the community level.
Children are trained to understand community matters, so that they can participate by voting,
when they reach the voting age.
The participation in community voting is fully digital.
Details of the matter involved is posted in the cloudsite.
The merits and demerits of different options could be discussed, on social and other media.
Voting is done via Jeeves.
Jeeves is a intelligent digital assistant.
All voting community members own a Jeeves.
Each citizen of the country has a unique ID.
This is linked to the Jeeves, that he owns.
Voting is an easy to do activity, which can be done comfortably from home.
Voting could be as frequent as weekly.
There is a near 100% participation in the weekend voting, by community members.
Self governance in community related matters, becomes ingrained into community members.
Community members treat the community as an extended family, and participate in its management.
The community has its own source of finance.
All the land in the city, is owned by the city.
Residents and business lease the land from the city.
The lease amount accrues to the community.
A part of the national taxes, like income tax and consumption tax, also devolve to the community.
The community also levies charges for services like energy, water, recycling etc.,
These are some of the main sources of funds, for the community.
All the expenditure directly related to the community, is incurred by the community.
We will discuss some example of expenditure, met out of community finance.
The community draws energy from the city energy grid.
The city has large solar farms, in the industrial suburb.
It also has large energy storage capacity, for night time power.
Community residents and business also generate their own solar power.
The community sets up the infra structure to collect and distribute energy.
It can draw energy from cities grid or supply energy to it.
The community infrastructure provides the connection to individual homes, industry and business.
The community recycles the water that it uses.
The communes themselves recycle most part of their water, that they use.
The community water recycling facilities, are over and above what the commune has.
Blue water which is used for drinking and cooking, is the only water that is drawn from fresh water.
Fresh water could be drawn from lakes and aquifers.
This water is typically recharged from rain water.
Separate blue water pipelines are given to all residents and business.
Green water is used for bathing, washing, etc.
Separate pipelines are given for green water needs.
The community maintains the highest standard of cleanliness and hygiene.
The community contracts with professional agencies to do this job.
All public places and avenues are maintained spotlessly clean by the community.
What used to be called as waste, is now referred to as used matter.
The city recycles near 100% of its used matter.
Segregation is done at the source, in residences and business.
Finer segregation is done at the community level.
Most of the recycling is done within the community itself.
Organic waste like fallen leaves from avenues is composted to produce fertiliser.
Other used materials like plastic, paper, cotton, tin etc., are also recycled within the community.
Community contracts agencies to set up recycling plants to achieve this.
Other materials like heavy metals, iron, steel, copper, aluminium etc, are segregated and sent to the recycling facility of the city.
These recycling units are located in the industrial suburb.
The community takes full responsibility for segregation and recycling.
The community maintains its own avenues.
The city only maintains the highways connecting the communities.
The intracommunity avenues are built and maintained by the community.
The community funds the professional agencies who do this job.
The community maintains the parks, lakes, and public places, like stadiums and cultural centres.
All the avenues are lined with trees, which is maintained by the community.
The community takes the help of consulting ecologist, horticulturist, arborist, etc.
Communities vie with each other, to make their communities greener.
The community maintains public records of all its members.
It oversees the activities of business in its community.
Business is expected to conform to national policies and community rules.
Pollution is strictly monitored and controlled.
Community has its own rules for noise pollution.
The regulation cost of business activity is funded by community finance.
The community provides security to its members.
Security services are outsourced to professional agencies.
The community office has an elected community manager, and appointed community officers.
It also has a panel of consultants.
The community takes full responsibility for the social welfare of its residents.
The basic living needs, health and education of economically weaker sections of society,
is subsidised by the community.
The community supports persons with disabilities, through social welfare schemes.
For example, it might partially fund a school for blind children.
All these costs are borne by community finance.
In general the concept is to fund all directly related community expenses by the community itself.
The community contributes to the city, for city infrastructure and facilities.
For example the subway rail, airport, solar farms, are setup by the city.
One of the key aspects of self governance, is that the community learns to manage its own finances.
The community manager automatically becomes a member of the city council.
The collection of community managers of the city, constitute the city council.
This acts like a bridge between the community and the city.
The city is considered as a interrelated set of communities.
What can be managed by the community, is managed by the community.
The city council only manages the affairs which concerns the whole city.
There are many facilities, which are common to all communities.
For example, the sub way rail, the airport, large solar farms , highways, city finance etc.
These are managed by the city council.
The city council also formulates policies which are applicable to all the communities, in the city.
If a city has 100 communities, the city council would have 100 community managers, as members.
The community manager has the additional responsibility of representing the community views,
in the city council.
The city council elects some members to act as directors in the city.
Typically the city has directors for energy, transport, finance, health, ecology, business, transport, communication,
education, security, science, social welfare, recycling, and culture.
This would typically require having a higher qualification, and experience.
One of the directors is elected as managing director, of the city.
If a community manager gets selected, to be a city director,
he could appoint a deputy community manager, to help him manage the community.
The community manager, is responsible for the management of his community,
regardless of the additional post that he might hold.
The city is managed like other private organisations.
Like the community the city, engages consultants to manage the city.
It out sources city level projects, to professional private agencies.
Having the community manager, as a member of the city council,
has the tremendous advantage of integrating the community and the city management.
The city management is no longer a distant, hard to access organisation.
Any city level matter, can be accessed via the community manager.
This removes any alienation that a citizen feels from the city management.
The community manager represents the views of the community, in the city council.
In many policy matters citizens directly vote, for city policies.
This engenders a sense of belonging to the city.
Citizens enthusiastically participate in the management of the city.
Traditionally a new government is elected, every five years or so.
In the concept of self governance, a more continuous and smoother transition is required.
In one model of self governance, 20% of the community managers, are elected every year.
The city council then would have 20% of new members every year.
The new members would typically reflect, the fresh thinking of community members.
Also, new young people, who reach the voting age, every year.
New policies that are formulated, has to reflect the views of new members.
In this model there is a continuous refreshing of the council members.
There is no sudden transition of one government to another.
There is a continuous and smooth transition of government.
The concept of city management applies to smaller towns also.
A town with a population of 10,000 can elect a community manager.
With increasing urbanisation, about 90% of the people are expected to live in towns and cities.
The nation comprises of many states.
The state has a state council.
Each state would have many towns and cities.
The community managers of the cities and towns, would be members of the state council.
The non urban areas of the state, are demarcated as districts.
About 10% of the states population, live in districts.
Most of them are usually engaged in agriculture, and farm related activities.
These districts elect a district manager, who is represented in the state council.
The state council, does not involve itself in the management of cities towns and districts.
The cities, towns and districts manage themselves.
They are self governing units.
The state government is involved only with matters concerning the whole state.
Rivers, nature reserves, state highways, ports, etc, are managed by the state council.
The state council can formulate policies concerning the whole state.
Since the members are community managers, and district managers,
the policies would reflect the same views as in the city management.
The community manager is also a member of the national council.
The district manager is also a member of the national council.
If a country has a population of 50 million, it will have about 5000 community and district managers.
This might appear to be an unwieldy number for a national council.
We might wonder what kind of a building would be required to house 5000 people?
In future meetings of such members need not be in a physical location.
It can be a virtual meeting, using advanced telecommunication technology.
Having a large number of members, is not a constraint for a national council.
In fact it has a distinct advantage.
The same community manager represents the people in the community, city, state, and nation.
The most important tool in self governance, is the direct vote.
All the major decisions, is not delegated to the government.
Citizens vote directly on major policy matters.
Only the details are left to the government.
Many factors has made direct voting desirable and practical.
Technology has now enabled citizens to vote, using an intelligent assistant.
The intelligent assistant is popularly known as Jeeves.
Jeeves is a mobile phone and computer.
All citizens are entitled to own a Jeeves.
Jeeves connects to the cloud, through a high speed wireless network.
It is possible to register one's vote using Jeeves.
Jeeves has access to augmented intelligence, in the cloud.
Information and knowledge is now available, at a person's finger tips.
The matters that is due for voting, and the schedule is widely publicised,
in social and other media.
Experts who are specialised in the subject, offer their views in the media.
People can easily access these through various devices, like TV, computer, and Jeeves.
Awareness of events that are happening, is now universal.
This awareness could be at the community level, and scales up to the global level.
In general we can say, that people are well informed.
All citizens now are educated.
Children are trained on matters related to community management, and self governance.
Like other subjects, children are expected to learn and earn credits, in these subjects.
Subjects that are coming up for voting, are discussed in schools.
Though children have to wait to attain voting age, to vote,
they are encouraged to understand the subjects involved, from an early age.
It is common to find children participating in discussions of subjects relating to self governance, at family meals.
Though it might take some time for children, to responsibly participate in voting,
they can come up with surprisingly creative ideas.
By the time children reach the voting age, they become highly knowledgable, and responsible, in self governance.
We can now think of society that comprises of such persons.
This results in a much more competent and responsible self governing society.
The subjects that come up for voting, are also quite different.
It is not necessary that subjects are adversarial, which requires a 'for' or 'against' vote.
If the subject for example, is about how to improve some aspect of the community, the subject is not adversarial .
Every community member is interested in improving the community.
Many solutions can be creative, and inclusive of different view points, of different sections of society.
Very often what is put to vote, is solution A, or B, or C.
Each solution tries to be more creative and inclusive.
Before a matter is put up for voting, experts discuss and come up with proposed creative solutions.
Public are free to offer comments on this.
The solutions are refined, based on discussions and public feedback.
Only then they are short listed as solution A , B or C, and come up for voting.
Citizens are trained from childhood to look for more creative and inclusive solutions.
This creates more positive and synergetic development strategies.
Convenience is a important aspect of direct governance.
If one needs to go, to a voting booth, stand in a queue, and vote,
it might be ok to do once in five years, but not on a frequent basis.
With advances in technology one can vote, with Jeeves, from the comfort of their home.
We can even conceive of weekly voting schedules.
For example, subjects could come up for voting, every Sunday.
People could vote anytime during that day or night.
The subject involved would have be discussed in various media, during the previous weeks.
People are primed and ready to vote conveniently every weekend, from home.
In conventional government systems, if people need to voice their views,
they need to resort to rallies, protests, strikes, etc,
In self governance, when people need to voice a view, they exercise their vote.
They feel empowered, that they can influence, the way they live.
This is very motivating, to the individual, and he learns and yearns to participate in self governance.
Direct voting is the foundation of self governance.
In summary :
Our current system of democracy, evolved from the time we were ruled, by kings and queens.
It expects the government to take care of us.
We need to design a new system of democracy, to enable self governance.
We can call this concept of self governance, as democracy 2G.
There are several factors which favour the evolution to self governance.
Technology now enables us to vote directly, from the convenience of home.
People are educated, and have easy access to views of experts, on any subject.
The subject to be voted upon, is presented in a very understandable way, in SIL language.
In democracy 2G, cities will be more autonomous, and will govern themselves.
People will align to policies rather than political parties.
In conventional governments, the individual feels powerless.
Traditional governments also tend to become corrupt.
Self governance allows for people to have a spectrum of views, on different subjects.
It is also highly decentralised, wherein every community will manage itself.
Most of the government work is outsourced to professionals.
Government projects are executed with the help of consultants, executing agencies and maintenance agencies .
Augmented Intelligence plays an important role, in self governance.
Self governance is a very lean structure of government officials.
Judicial responsibility is also decentralised to the community level.
Many conflicts are settled with the help of arbitrators.
The community manager plays a central role in self governance.
He has the overall responsibility of managing the community.
Everything that happens in the community, is transparently reflected in the community website.
The community votes, on a regular basis, on many subjects related to the community.
The community has its own income, and manages its own finance.
The city council is the collection of all the community managers.
The community manager represents the community, in the state and national council also.
This acts as a bridge between the community, the city, the state and the nation.
Direct voting, which could be as frequent as weekly, is the fundamental principle,
on which the model of self governance is based on.
Essentially self governance empowers the individual.