Conference Proceedings
Opening Remarks by the Chair
As shown by the diametrically opposite ways in which the
unconditional use of postal ballots has been assessed, a
wide variety of electoral standards can be discerned on an
international scale in regard to different methods of
voting, some of which are informed by distinct traditions
of political philosophy. Cultural diversity can be
interpreted as mitigating against the possibility of
developing consistent international electoral standards. An
alternative view is that such standards are possible if
based on common sense, and that democrats should seek
agreement on how best to secure them. This is the CDRSB
viewpoint: like President Kennedy, we are unwilling to
witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to
which democratic nations have been committed.
Aside from questions of national circumstance and cultural
diversity two general factors can be discerned which help
explain why inconsistencies in electoral standards exist.
The first is that of concern to halt falling rates of voter
turnout, the second is that of direct or indirect factional
self interest in securing electoral advantage. The CDRSB
view is that the use of postal ballots on demand creates
unacceptably high levels of opportunity for fraud and
intimidation, and that alternative ways to facilitate voter
participation should be developed which are less vulnerable
to factional interests. For example it is a self evident
truth that sortition can be used to contain deleterious
factional influences.
Consistent international electoral standards based on
common sense are possible. The chief benchmarks of social
progress in establishing universal standards of modern
common sense understanding were set by the work and
revolutionary achievements of the British people, and given
their most concise expression in the American Declaration
of Independence and Bill of Rights. The ideas embodied in
these documents are based on the self evident truths of
common sense which underlay and were clarified in their
relation to those truths which can be derived from them by
the development of modern scientific method and its
application to the organisation of human affairs.
Impediments to progress since the American Revolution may
be attributed in large part to insufficient account being
taken of these distinctions in their relation to political
reform concerned with popular scrutiny of and
experimentation with distinct forms of macroeconomic
organisation.
Jefferson's vision of a flexible, participatory democratic
order able to facilitate radical constitutional review and
if necessary reform upon a regular, long term cycle was
first deferred and later forsaken altogether for pragmatic
considerations made more pressing given the slower and more
problematic pace of reform in Europe in achieving stable
and supportive advance. The construction of government
based on reason and consent has involved ongoing conflict
between evolving conservative and radical perspectives, and
in this context a consequence of failure to improve upon or
address shortcomings in the American constitutional
settlement has been the strengthening of tendencies towards
chronic, factional polarisation within the relatively
narrow, representative parameters of democratic power
bestowed by the founding fathers.
In the USA conservative extremism on the question of
slavery had to be overcome by the use of unlimited and
overwhelming force. In Europe this polarisation led to
factional extremism, deepening social conflict and rupture
of the tenuous relation between science, common sense
understanding and political philosophy not only on the part
of conservative forces but also of radicalism itself in an
era of accelerating technological and economic development.
The genesis of both left and right totalitarianism, and
with this the main problems of democratic struggle, war and
cold war throughout the twentieth century may be attributed
in large part to these difficulties.
In this light it can be seen that the tasks of developing
consistent international electoral standards can include to
some considerable extent the need to address major problems
of socioeconomic and political development. These tasks
concern not only voter turnout and political participation
in the west but also social conflict and extremism on a
general basis, both in regard to contemporary developments
and also in regard to the legacy of past conflict which
conditions and circumscribes the present state of world
affairs. An examination of the relation between common
sense and the development of modern democracy can more
fully illustrate this (this point is elaborated in the
historical analysis).
Against this background the CDRSB is proposing that opinion
among the international community should be sought and
systematically recorded in regard to the use of postal
ballots on demand in their relation to the standards
implied by Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights concerning the secrecy of the ballot. The CDRSB is
also proposing that a provisional intergovernmental forum
on electoral standards be formed with the purpose of
inviting formal government affiliation to it, preparing a
comprehensive report on the use of postal ballots on demand
and organising a conference on international electoral
standards.