Conclusion
On the basis of the above analysis it may be conjectured
that protection of the right to a secret ballot on the
basis of common sense and the universal standards of
electoral practice implied by Article 21 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights is integrally connected to
problems of conflict resolution on a world historical
scale. These difficulties have their origins in failure to
properly complete the transition from government based on
superstition and force to government based on reason and
consent due to problems of conservative intransigence, lack
of strategic clarity on the part of democratic forces,
aristocratic interference, and opportunism.
For these reasons modern democracy has not been developed
in accordance with the basic truths of common sense.
Against this background the basic standards of common sense
understanding in regard to democratic progress have
nevertheless found their most concise, though still
incomplete expression in the American Declaration of
Independence and Bill of Rights. In so far as it upholds
the tenets espoused in these documents the United States
accordingly remains the most advanced republic in the world
best able to protect fundamental human rights and to serve
as an example of leadership in global political progress.
However it also remains the case that the US constitution
is too strongly oriented to the principle of aristocracy in
political organisation and the distribution of inherited
wealth. Sortition is the essence of democracy, but there is
too little regard paid to it in US political process. The
conclusions of the American constitutional convention
incorporated an exaggerated estimate of the requirement for
specialised skills in all branches of US Government, with
the notable exception of the judicial process. This
exaggeration reflects and is largely a consequence of the
compromise with aristocracy which was necessary in the 18th
century for American democracy, as was also the failure to
directly address the need for social regulation of
inherited wealth. This necessity came about due to the
failure of the ruling power to adopt a consistently
positive approach to facilitating the transition from
government based on force and superstition to government
based on reason and consent. This circumstance made
aristocracy a necessarily central organisational component
of revolutionary struggle, and it also, given the
prevailing balance of forces between radicalism and
conservatism of the period, made compromise with
aristocratic factions a pragmatically necessary option.
The compromise with the French and Spanish monarchy, the
American slavocracy and freemasonry, all of which represent
aristocratic interests, has not been fully overcome since
the revolution. One of the key features of this compromise
has been misrepresentation of the self evident truth that
sortition - the chief form of election in Athenian
democracy - is the most practicable method of election best
able to contain the deleterious influences of factionalism,
including secret factionalism. This misrepresentation was
effected chiefly, according to the historical facts which
are available for examination, by James Madison. His action
in misrepresenting sortition signifies the point of
departure between the basic truths of common sense and the
interests of aristocracy in American democracy, and is the
key event which led in turn to confusion within American
radicalism, a circumstance which had debilitating
consequences for the cause of democratic progress on a
world scale.
This was the basic circumstance in which European labour
failed to overcome the totalitarian tendencies of the
French revolution, and in which idealism, dialectical
materialism and pragmatism later assumed hegemony in
radical political philosophy. The American revolution was
the best led, most advanced achievement in democratic
progress of the modern period. Its weaknesses have not even
been properly identified, leave alone addressed, by global
radicalism, which on a general basis has failed to overcome
the rupture of the tenuous relation between science,
politics and common sense understanding which developed
largely in consequence of these weaknesses and limitations.
The growth of totalitarian ideology on the Left took place
in this context, in which the radical standpoint in regard
to democratic rights has been largely inverted and
contaminated by communist fifth column practices. Modern
radicalism bears the hallmark of this problematic,
including in regard to defence of the right to a secret
ballot and its relation to factional self interest and the
use of postal ballots on demand.
Against this background democratic participation in
American society can therefore best be improved not by
lowering electoral standards in regard to the use of
absentee ballots, but by incorporating greater use of
sortition in the constitution and greatly increasing,
accordingly, the number of ordinary citizens paid for
political work. Various pilot projects could be undertaken
to test out such procedures, with a view to amending, if
necessary, the US constitution on the basis indicated by
Franklin, Jefferson, Paine and others in regard to the
following concerns:
First, the principle that the earth belongs to the living -
an appropriate constitutional measure developing the 16th
Amendment on income tax could be adopted. Second,
correction of James Madison's misrepresentation of Athenian
democratic practice. This could be brought about by further
developing the role of sortition beyond the judicial
process to the legislature, in regard to electoral
practice, and, where possible, the executive, in regard to
recruitment practices. In this way much greater numbers of
ordinary citizens could take part professionally in the
decision making process who have been selected by the use
of sortition either in electoral or recruitment practices.
A policy of payment for such greater numbers of ordinary
citizens selected through sortition to take part in
political decision making process, as was the practice in
Athenian democracy, should accordingly be implemented.
There are also other areas in which the use of random
selection in recruitment practices for both ordinary
citizens and specialists can be employed: civil service,
defence, media, academic institutions, security and social
services could all benefit from such a policy. Similarly,
in the field of industrial relations both trade unions and
company management boards could incorporate sortition as a
complementary method of election.
In this way Jefferson's vision of a flexible, participatory
democratic republic able to facilitate radical
constitutional review and if necessary reform upon a
regular, long term cycle can be fulfilled and completed in
accordance with the basic truths of common sense
understanding. This would provide an example to the world
of how tendencies towards chronic, factional polarisation
within the relatively narrow, representative parameters of
democratic power may be ameliorated and developed to serve
the general interest upon a non-antagonistic foundation of
political cooperation, common purpose and equality in the
search for optimal solutions to problems associated with
the correlation of social justice, economic efficiency, and
human rights. This in turn would provide the most secure
foundation upon which related questions of conflict,
poverty and oppression throughout the world can best be
addressed. It is a self evident truth that sortition can
serve to contain the deleterious influences of secret
factions and chronic factional polarisation: the US
constitution amended in this way would therefore better
facilitate struggle against and defeat of totalitarian
enemies both by ensuring the greatest possible unity of
democratic forces and by helping to prevent infiltration
and subversion of political, military, social and economic
institutions by fifth column forces.
Conflict management could be pursued on an international
scale first by informal, then by formal agreement in regard
to this understanding of the leading role of the United
States in global democratic development and these
objectives of constitutional reform. Meaningful cooperation
between radicalism and conservatism could be established to
deal with issues of ethnic and religious conflict in the
developing world. Constitutional reform could thereafter
proceed both in the United States and in other countries in
emulation of these changes, where suitable adaptations to
local and national conditions could be developed. This
could include the communist states, taking account of
practical considerations concerning the need to maintain
stability, chief among which are the existing ratios of
private to public sector spending. The international aspect
of such a process of constitutional development could
accordingly be coordinated and appropriate changes in
policy made, including within the United
Nations.