IX. Summary 6
Next Steps for the Effective Institution of a World Parliament: The Seed is Sown, The Tree Will Soon Be Growing

by Arnaud BLIN, Forum Coordination

For the last month of the first phase, we oriented the debate towards the next steps that we could take for actually creating a World Parliament. To start the discussion, we hinted at a few suggestions for future topics of interest, including the interconnected areas of research, promotion, collective deliberation and self-development of the idea of a World parliament, the aim being to reach and involve the different strata and sensibilities of the entire global society. We proposed to do this by informing people about the need for world democracy and for a World Parliament and by jumpstarting its practical application through participatory and deliberative processes which might include research activities, preparing promotional material and common tools, organizing promotional activities and setting up deliberative processes.

This particular period of the forum drew a great number of messages that dealt with many of the questions raised during the last few months as well with this month’s topic, and also current affairs.

Choosing a language: begin with what we have

The topics that concerned the participants most at this stage of the game were varied and included such things as designing a logo for the World Parliament, creating an art committee or dealing with the language issue and communication. Thus, as we get ready to go on to the next stage, a number of issues were raised that deal both with practical short term problems as well as long term fundamental problems. And, while creating a logo should be a simpler task than resolving the perennial issue of how to deal with politicians, all tasks are important and need to be thought through.

Two problems in particular have been debated during the entire forum and once again dominated the discussion: language and politicians. The language problem is of a practical order but also involves ethical issues. Since diversity and participation are fundamental to the legitimacy of a World Parliament, communication is a key component of a viable parliament. Thus, one can use one dominant language or several languages but probably not all languages.

Since most international organizations have dealt more or less successfully with this issue, it does not seem insurmountable. However, the ethical dimension of the problem makes it difficult to chose one solution over the other. From an ethical point of view, picking a new language such as Esperanto or Ido or reviving a dead language would provide for the perfect solution since it would be almost free of cultural biases. But from a practical point of view, this solution is not without problems - while some argue that it can be learned quickly, for others it would seem to add difficulty to an already challenging task. At this point using a few international languages seems to present a good compromise, and would let us test our abilities to communicate in several languages and to think about how World Parliament communication might evolve in the next few years - either towards more or less languages.

Elect political representatives to accomplish a job, not to fill a position

The issue of politicians seems thornier. In order to function, any political organization, including a World Parliament, needs to chose in some way or another some people to run it. These people are, broadly speaking, politicians. While public servants in Athens for example were looked upon with the highest regard, the reputation of politicians has suffered greatly in the centuries that have followed this Golden Age (which was far from perfect). The advent of modern democracy, while raising the ideals of political organization, has all but shown with more clarity the many flaws of those who choose to represent their brethren at the various rungs of government. Alas, greed, corruption, dishonesty and selfishness seem to be a greater source of motivation for most politicians than serving the interests of the people. Logically, for a majority of participants in this forum, the creation of a World Parliament must coincide with a new way to look at and organize governance, as well as pick representatives.

Thus, the human factor, so to speak, has taken on great importance in the eyes of most contributors. And, while more questions have been raised on this topic than problems solved, several things have come out of the discussion. For one, things need to be done differently than before and everything must be put in place so that those who serve a World Parliament will do so for the reasons a World Parliament was set up in the first place. A consensus was reached about the idea that members of a World Parliament will be chosen to perform a task rather than fill a position. These people will thus be closer to being technicians than traditional politicians. Their accountability will be based on how well they perform the task at hand and mechanisms will be put in place to ensure that they do. Making a career out of this activity seemed to many to be a bad idea, thus posing the problem of finding competent people who will be picked for their diverse experiences rather than their experience of working in the World Parliament. But, while we may have a general idea of what a World Parliament politician might look like, the measures needed to put the process in place have yet to be determined.

An Agenda to follow: the time for a World Parliament has come

This brings us to the all important issue of the timeline for a World Parliament. Obviously, there were many different opinions on this; but altogether participants were keen to move on quickly to the next step while allowing a few years to set the stages for the creation of a World Parliament. Five years was a recurring number even if people’s view varied enormously as to how to make the transition from this forum to the actual World Parliament. Most important perhaps was the feeling shared by most that a World Parliament is indeed an idea whose time has come, and something which will most likely see the light of day soon in one form or another.

Equally important is the feeling that the forum has already contributed to create something that has developed a life of its own, generating participation and involvement from individuals and groups (some of them created through this very process) and already freeing the World Parliament from the hands of those who initiated this forum. Long and difficult as the road may appear ahead, the journey is off to an auspicious start. The seeds of our tree of palaver have taken root. Soon, the tree itself should start to emerge from the ground.