Join the new world

MUSIC



I am compelled to write a follow-up article to Cooperative eSociety, revising the sections on the foundational principles, and democracy and government. Lastly I will finish this article by discussing the need for Institutes and what they should be used for.








The Rochdale Principles were established in 1884 by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers and were formally adopted by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) in 1937. They were updated in 1966 and in 1995. The Rochdale Principles are the principles by which cooperatives are run and developed in the real world and in-game. They should serve as the basis by which cooperatives operate in practice and as a guide for the creation of By-Laws.




Cooperatives and Cooperative eSociety are based on Open Membership with the community without discrimination on the basis of sex, religion, ideology, gender, race, ability, age, class, or creed, on the condition that those who join accept their responsibility as a member and are voted in through a democratic system.




In order to achieve Voluntarism and Open Membership Cooperatives and Cooperative eSociety should not discriminate on the basis of sex, religion, ideology, gender, race, ability, age, class, or creed. This should not apply to other rules that do not pertain to the categories laid out above, in a Cooperatives By-Laws. (This includes: only allowing citizens of a particular eNation to join, or requiring members to buy into the organization to become a member, etc)




Because Cooperatives and Cooperative eSociety is based on voluntarism, certain incentives and motivations will need to be present. In eRepublik this motivation and reward is that by joining you will gain access to funding on a democratic basis for Upgrades, Companies, Supplies, and Programs. This will allow those involved to become self sustainable in the long-run. This is the Financial Incentive. Other incentives include, helping newer players, and fixing income/savings disparities between old and new players, and educating other players on the economic module of eRepublik.




Every cooperative and Cooperative eSociety itself must be founded on democracy - one member one vote, and every decision must be made by the constituent members collectively.




Members of a co-op contribute funds on an individual basis. This treasury should be controlled by the members collectively when passing funding requests and in holding the funds. Each member should WAM (work as a manager) and or work as an employee, as well as sell their products on the market.




A decision to affiliate a cooperative with another cooperative or with a federation or government should be made on a democratic basis among the constituent members and should respect the autonomy of each cooperative and on the basis that the decision to affiliate can be revoked. There should be no delegation mixing and members should only join one co-op.




Each cooperative should offer educational training on how to start a co-op, how to play eRepublik in regards to the Economic Module, and the principles of Cooperative eSociety.




The furtherance of Cooperative eSociety can only come if Cooperatives are willing to conduct outreach, share data, federate, and work together to propagate new Cooperative enterprises within the game. Any cooperation among cooperatives should be had with respect to autonomy.




Cooperatives exist to benefit the communities they inhabit. They should be open to diversity among their members and should actively work to provide programs and aid for the community.






Part of my need to revise the section on government and democracy comes from the fact that I have a couple new ideas, and partly because I feel I didn’t spend enough time on it. The next few sections will be on government and some of the ways I think it can be changed. Lastly I will make the argument that these changes can happen from the ground up by the community, with both disregard for existing meta structures and also from the top down using the existing meta structures. I’ll conclude by essentially saying I don’t care which way we do it, as long as changes are made toward the system I am about to outline.




What is Hybrid Democracy? Hybrid Democracy is a system that incorporates both representatives as well as the public at large in decision making. In eRepublik and in eUSA this would work in the following ways:

A.1 Each party would form General Assemblies. (These assemblies would exist as group messages that include each member of a party or as separate spaces on eUS Forum. Some parties would need multiple assemblies -If using group messages- because group messages have a max limit of 50 players.)

A.2 Each member of a General Assembly would have one vote, and the right to call for a vote on any particular issue.

A.3 Each General Assembly would have an elected representative. This representatives job would be to pass legislation to Congress to be voted on, from their respective General Assembly -After it passes-

A.4 The requirements to join a General Assembly would be: You must be in a political party, and you must be active in-game




The existing meta-structure of the eUS Forum could go unaltered with respect to using General Assemblies in government, or the community could move to abolish its use through them. What can’t be changed are the in-game congress roles, the party presidential role or the country president role, of which the buttons are relegated for voting on laws. Therefore the use of these assemblies will require collaboration with congress and the executive branch. In truth not much would change - parties would still vote for a party president, the party president would still set the congress roster, congressmen would still vote to pass laws and would still propose them. What would change is, every citizen would have access to a meta-system in which everyone in a party could vote on issues, and voice their concerns with the government, and it would put pressure on congressmen to vote as their representative assemblies want them to. It will also allow legislation to be put forward by the community instead of just by congressmen or the country president.



Get your party to create them.

Pass legislation in congress that expands the special delegate system to include as many delegates as a party has members. Adding in addition clauses outlining how General Assemblies would work.

-Pretty straightforward-




In late-stage eRepublik, especially in eUSA, it becomes ever apparent that the existing meta-structures are being maintained by fewer and fewer hands and that the long entrenched establishment in these spaces, gate-keeping what is and is not acceptable behavior by congressmen etc, is shrinking. I know that the gate-keeping takes place because I have spent time myself doing just that, and scheming behind the scenes with some of these characters. No doubt these words will promote discontent and disagreement among a select few of my readers, but I have since taken a stand against established power and some of the group-think that has come with allowing one “side” to choose what is and is not acceptable based on arbitrary out of game rules and websites. The general idea that people come to play eRepublik and not eUS Forums still stands after all this time as evidenced by TBSPs disuse of the forum and the international community’s decision to drop the use of forums altogether, among other things - par few exceptions.

As I said in section 3, It makes no difference to me how this system is implemented, overriding forum approval as a form of direct action, or using the forum to add General Assemblies into the existing meta-structure of eUSA will accomplish more than enough toward solving some of the problems that we have as a community. It will put power into the hands of the political majority - instead of centralizing it into the hands of a few who can win popularity contests. My only suggestion is this: if the community chooses to implement this new form of governance; that it does so on a united basis. Either we stand together and abolish forums or we stand together and work to make the system right for everyone. I believe General Assemblies to be a wonderful solution - but I acknowledge that implementing them on both bases will further divide the community - and will exacerbate the problem.






This last section will be on Institutes. It’ll cover why I think they are necessary, what role they should play in Cooperative eSociety, and how they function.

Institutes serve as the educational arm of Cooperative eSociety. They serve as a way to propagate information on cooperatives, such as how to build them, how they work, and the principles behind them -which should be apparent in any cooperatives By-Laws.




Institutes will do the brunt of the work when it comes to inspiring other players to band together and form their own cooperatives in eRepublik. They serve as centers of educational outreach and research on cooperatives. If we are to build Cooperative eSocieties there will need to be groups in this game that can explain the model and its functionality to high ranking government officials in other countries and our own. They will need to speak with parties from around the eWorld and MUs. They will need to closely track the ledgers in the cooperatives they help build to keep data, and to provide statistics on what is happening within such societies.




The goal of Institutes will be: The furtherance of Cooperative eSociety, Education of players, Research on Cooperatives, Advancement of the concepts put forward by myself and others, and the raw organizing behind forming Cooperatives.




Quote From Eugene Debs after being convicted under the Espionage Act

"Your Honor, I ask no mercy and I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never so clearly comprehended as now the great struggle between the powers of greed and exploitation on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of industrial freedom and social justice.

I can see the dawn of the better day for humanity. The people are awakening. In due time they will and must come to their own.

When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the southern cross, burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches, the southern cross begins to bend, the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points the Almighty marks the passage of time upon the dial of the universe, and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the lookout knows that the midnight is passing and that relief and rest are close at hand. Let the people everywhere take heart of hope, for the cross is bending, the midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning."



MUSIC


References:


[SFPOM] A Cooperative eSociety
https://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-sfpom-a-cooperative-esociety-2718727/1/20

[SFPOM] A Cooperative Manifesto
https://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-sfpom-a-cooperative-manifesto-2717020/1/20

[SFPOM] A Cooperative Manifesto II
https://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-sfpom-a-cooperative-manifesto-ii-2718208/1/20

[SFPOM] Proposal: SFP Cooperative
https://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-sfpom-proposal-sfp-cooperative-2713965/1/20

[SFPOM] Proposal: eInternationale Cooperative Federation
https://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-sfpom-einternationale-cooperative-federation-proposal-2714702/1/20

[DoCA] Proposal: By-Laws of the eUS National Cooperative
https://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-doca-proposal-by-laws-of-the-eus-national-cooperative-2717403/1/20

SFP Producer Cooperative Ledger
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vR-Jkhq90BiV5ZQoVc_glQ8-04TOA_x3h7pk_Wxqr0uFhqw79hiAVIYV16ErLZtI5Fl5l_lqBYjjRzv/pubhtml

eUS National Cooperative Ledger
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YPgM4i2S-tb5kXxJYsa2wnlbfkwoKw5ZOzn9wzQAWkk/edit#gid=0


~eUS National Co-op Treasurer, and SFP Prod. Co-op Producer, Wilhelm Rontgen~