No one should be misled by the Liberal Capitalists into thinking that there is only one definition of Democracy. Parliamentary Democracy is not the only version of Democracy that exists. Council Democracy was promoted by the Work-Standard to emphasize the importance of realizing that political governance and economic governance are part of the same statecraft. National Sovereignty belongs to the Totality, which entrusts the Council State to wield the Intents of Command and Obedience and to govern the nation. Council Democracy is the means by which the Totality holds the Council State to account and to ensure that the political parties in charge of the Council Democracy do not abuse the political and economic powers of the Council State.

Political parties will continue to exist in Council Democracy, but unlike those operating in Parliamentary Democracy, their funding is partly supported by the Council State. Registered political parties that have chosen to support the ruling “People’s Party” and its “United Front” of supporting parties are entitled to receive funding from the State Budget. These administrative funds are allocated to the People’s Party and its United Front to operate their various party organizations and groups. The purpose of this Entry is to discuss the People’s Party and its United Front, how they conduct themselves under Council Democracy, and how they interact with the Totality as part of the broader Council Democratic process.  

Council Democratic Terms of Office

The “Democracy” in Council Democracy is a genuine one. In the basic template of Council Democracy under the Work-Standard, the State President serves two (2) consecutive terms of five (5) years each. At the end of their fifth year in office, the State President will stand for reelection by the State-Electors. State-Electors may either reelect the State President or replace them with another candidate from the People’s Party and its United Front. In the event of a tie, the State Chancellor must break the stalemate. If the State President wins reelection, they are allowed to serve for another five years. By the end of their tenth year in office, the State-Electors will choose another candidate to replace the outgoing State President. After a new State President is chosen, the incumbent State Chancellor leaves office and is replaced by their successor.

The State-Electors serve on an eight-year term and State Councilors on a six-year term. At the end of their terms, State-Electors and State Councilors must stand for reelection. The State Delegates and State Functionaries may choose to reelect them or replace them with other candidates among their ranks. Conversely, the State Delegates serve on a four-year term, whereas the State Functionaries serve on a five-year term. At the end of each term, Constituencies inside the Central and Regional Governments must reelect or replace with other candidates.

In the Regional Government, Governors serve two consecutive terms of eight years, while Regional Delegates and Regional Functionaries serve four-year and five-year terms respectively. They must stand for reelection, where they will either be reelected or replaced by their Constituencies inside the Regional and Municipal Governments. In the Municipal Government, Mayors serve two consecutive terms of six years, Municipal Delegates serve on a two-year term, and Municipal Functionaries on a four-year term. Again, they have to be reelected at the end of their terms by the Municipal Government’s Departments and Offices as well as the VCS Economy’s Enterprises and Professions.

Term Limits do exist under Council Democracy, but they only apply to the State President, State Chancellor, Governor and Mayor. The State-Elector, State Councilor, and all Delegates and Functionaries do not have Term Limits and can continue to serve until they decide to resign or retire, are replaced by their Constituencies, or can no longer serve due to health reasons. To compensate for the lack of Term Limits for those government officials, the Totality has the ability to recall any of them by a majority vote from their Constituencies.

Imagine for a moment that there is a Municipal Delegate whose Constituents are the members of a Social Enterprise, a NSE that specializes itself as a “Department Store.” The Department Store is operated by an Administrator and Civil Servants, its contributions of Arbeit and Geld recorded by an Economic Planner and their Accountants, and regularly evaluated by an Inspector from the State Commissariats. The personnel of this Department Store had chosen one of their own to be their Municipal Delegate. This Municipal Delegate is in the middle of their term and they have thus far proven themselves unworthy of governing in their interests. Since they were the ones who voted that person into office, the personnel of the Department Store can simply decide by majority vote to issue a “Recall” of their Municipal Delegate.

When a Recall is issued, the Constituency announces to the Municipal Council that their Delegate or Functionary (in this case, the Delegate of a Department Store) will be stepping down from office and standing for reelection. The Constituency will then be able to elect somebody else or be convinced otherwise and keep the Delegate in office. Upon conclusion of the new election, the Constituency must inform the Municipal Government of the decision. The decision will be respected by the Municipal Government, upheld by a sitting judge, and enforced by law. To prevent arbitrary, rash decision-making and encourage the Totality to choose wisely, every Constituency can only issue a Recall once a month.

The People’s Party and United Front

Every political party, including the People’s Party and its United Front, is led by a “Party Premier,” a “Party Chairman” and a “General Secretary.” The Party Premier becomes the State President if they had been chosen by the State-Electors of the State Council. The Party Chairman will become the State Chancellor if they are chosen by the Party Premier. Regardless of whether the Party Premier and Party Chairman are elected to serve as State President and State Chancellor, the everyday affairs of a political party fall under the responsibilities of the General Secretary.

The Party Premier, Party Chairman and General Secretary preside over the “National Party Council” consisting of “National Party Functionaries” and “National Party Delegates.” The Party Premier is chosen by the National Party Functionaries, the Party Chairman from among the National Party Functionaries, and the General Secretary and National Party Functionaries from among the National Party Delegates. The National Party Delegates are selected from “Regional Party Councils” of “Regional Party Functionaries” and “Regional Party Delegates,” who are in turn chosen by the “Municipal Party Councils” of “Municipal Party Functionaries” and “Municipal Party Delegates” voted by the party membership.   

In the Municipal Party Council, Municipal Party Delegates compete with their counterparts from other political parties to become the Municipal Delegates of various Guilds and Enterprises at the local level. The same is to be expected of Municipal Party Functionaries among the Offices and Departments of the Municipal Government. If the Municipal Party Delegates and Municipal Party Functionaries gain a majority vote in their respective elections, they will be given their seats inside the Municipal Economic Chambers and the Municipal Civil Chambers of their Municipal Government. If the Municipal Party Council succeeds in getting a majority of its members to sit on the Municipal Civil Chambers and Municipal Civil Chambers, they will be in the position to choose their Mayor and Regional Delegate to the Regional Government, followed by the Governor and State Delegate to the Central Government.

In the Regional and Central Governments, the Regional and National Party Councils must coordinate their efforts to ensure that their Party Functionaries are chosen by the bureaucrats of the Ministries, Departments and Offices. For Party Delegates, the Municipal Party Councils should coordinate their efforts across the various Municipal Governments to get them into Regional Delegate and State Delegate positions. In the General Economic Chambers and General Civil Chambers, it then becomes a matter of either gaining a majority inside the State Council or receiving the support of the State Council to get Party Delegates or Party Functionaries chosen as State Councilors and State-Electors. Once a political party has enough of its National Party Council as State Councilors and State-Electors, they will then be able to choose the Party Premier and Party Chairman as the next State President and State Chancellor respectively.

In order to achieve that lofty goal, every political party will need access to ample amounts of Actual Geld because their political activities do not count as sources of Actual Arbeit. Unless they receive funding from the Council State or they are operating their own Enterprises in the VCS Economy, political parties are not directly involved in any production processes and transactional sales. Labor unions do not count. This limitation has to do with the Work-Standard’s distinct conception of Property, which affects whether or not someone is capable of contributing Arbeit and Geld to the Life-Energy Reserve. The State Commissariats of Wages and Price enforces it in order to mitigate corruption, embezzlement, and fraud among the registered parties. The funding of all political parties should always be scrutinized by both the Totality and the State.

The general purposes of funding political parties are for the party leadership to have the means of establishing organizations and groups for its membership and to convince the Totality why they should be the ones in charge of the Council State. Political parties are allowed to set up youth, women, and university groups, disseminate a party newspaper, publish party literature and media, and to gain the electoral support of the Totality through Social Media and Student Media. All apolitical and cultural publications fall under the dominion of State Media, which will not be brought under the control of any political parties.

  Social Ranking System and Constituencies  

The Social Ranking System plays an important role in the delegation of the VCS Economy. As one has probably noticed in this Section thus far, the Civil Chambers of a given Council consist of Functionaries from the various Ministries, Departments and Offices. The State Council’s General Civil Chamber is for the Central Government’s bureaucrats, the Regional Civil Chambers for the Regional Government’s bureaucrats, and the Municipal Civil Chambers for the Municipal Government’s bureaucrats. What deserves mention is that, among the Economic Chambers of the Councils, not every Enterprise automatically has its Delegates assigned to the Municipal Economic Chamber by default. Sometimes, because of corresponding Social Rank, an Enterprise might have its Delegate sitting in the Regional Government or the Central Government.        

• Constituents of Social Enterprises affiliated with Guilds and Subsidiaries, such as smaller NSEs, POEs and PDEs, send their Delegates to the Councils of their Municipal Governments.  
• Constituents of Social and State Enterprises affiliated with Consortiums, all of whom are small SOEs, most NSEs, and larger POEs, send their Delegates to the Councils of Regional Governments.  
• Constituents of State Enterprises affiliated with Industrial Concerns, which includes the rest of the SOEs and all SAEs, send their Delegates to the State Council of the Central Government.

The idea here is straightforward. Larger Social Enterprises and State Enterprises are more difficult to accommodate by Municipal Governments. Higher Social Ranks are correlated with a higher Quality of Arbeit and vice versa. The higher the Social Rank of a given Enterprise, the more necessary it becomes for its Delegates to be brought under the direct oversight of the Council State. Thus, all Industrial Concerns only rely on State Delegates to govern at their behest.

To level the playing field between Enterprises of varying Social Ranks, the Council Democratic process is designed to ensure that the entire VCS Economy has proper delegation. Every Guild and Subsidiary of Enterprises in the VCS Economy chose its Municipal Delegates and entrusts them to select their Regional Delegate, who will in turn elect the State Delegate expected to govern on behalf of their respective Guild and Subsidiary at the State Council.  Every Consortium of Enterprises in the VCS Economy chooses their Regional Delegates, who in turn are expected to elect the State Delegate expected to govern on behalf of their respective Consortium at the State Council.  

Categories: Compendium

Tags: Economics, Finance, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Socialist Finance, Third Place, Work-Standard