Time for a Change!

What are Syntropic Values? Realizing The Universal Model By SV Staff Living for a Change Building and maintaining an organization is difficult if members have deeply conflicting values and worldviews. Closed systems with excessive conformity, on the other hand, are antidemocratic and inevitably fail. The most successful organizations are based on a minimal set of shared values and goals, open and democratic decision-making, and an incentive structure that leads to both personal reward and to environmentally adaptive behaviors. Such organizations take into consideration human nature and the global eco-system, as well as the short and long term effects of every action. A New Model The SV value system is more fully described in The Universal Model: A Democratic Constitution for the Third Millennium which is available online from The Center for the Evolution of Democracy.

This model incorporates The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Conventions on the rights of women and children, and other values seen as essential to further progress in the evolution of democracy toward its highest ideals.

Ten Critical Issues

To move toward those ends, ten intermediate steps are necessary in most modern democracies. The following critical issues are discussed more fully in the video Democracy In Time, created by CED:

(1) Campaign Finance

Public financing of (non-careerist) political campaigns is a necessary expense of democracy and the only logical answer to control of elections by special interests.

(2) Term Limits

We can put an end to political careerism by making it illegal for a person to hold two elective terms in succession.

(3) Minority and Gender Representation

Proportional representation for all minorities, small political parties, and both genders tends to bring more people into the political process and would result in dramatically improved decision-making by our legislative bodies.

(4) Mass Media

We advocate the distribution of media licenses equally among the private for-profit, private non-profit, and public sectors.

(5) The Economy

The economy, which is already naturally divided into for-profit, non-profit, and public sectors could be restructured so that a nearly equal balance exists among the three sectors.

(6) Lobbying

We could prevent lobbyists from whispering in the ears of our representatives by requiring them to present their views only in organized public forums where a hundred voices can contend by the rules of fair debate.

(7) Education

If we are to move our democracies ahead, we will have to teach our students how to fine-tune their abilities to detect the tactics of special interests as well as to prepare our students for jobs that fit into sustainable economies.

(8) Health Care

We advocate single-payer, guaranteed, universal, health care with a Bill of Patients’ Rights to include the right to choose your own health care specialists.

(9) Environment and Population

A more scientific and less profit-oriented approach to caring for our environment–and for deciding our planet’s carrying capacity at different standards of living–is essential.

(10) International

An extension of democratic process into all international organizations, especially the United Nations, NAFTA, and the World Trade Organization, and strict new international standards to protect labor, the environment, minorities, and indigenous peoples will be necessary to elevate democracy to the next step in its long evolution.

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