Quarles (continued):
the democratic republic was the best balance between liberty and laws;
elections permanently checked authoritative arrogance;
the system balanced majority will against inalienable rights;
however, a population made mobile by improved transportation and communication felt no communal loyalties;
states merely provided local services or petty tyrannies;
national government became the only safeguard of the individual;
nuclear wars were physically and morally destructive;
survival overrode international law, producing the oppressive Protectorate;
however, a global democratic republic has become possible.
A Platonic dialogue, which this is, requires occasional questions or objections from other speakers. Trembecki objects:
Asians, Africans, Europeans, Latin Americans and North Americans think and care about different things;
people hate the Protectorate because it forces them into a different mold;
they won't become democrats any more than Quarles will become a Hindu or a Moslem.
Koskinen thinks that a world government could only be based on a single world culture.
Quarles replies that diverse, viable and equal communities would become a US-style federalism, reviving liberty and resisting any encroachments by the central authority. Continuing the Platonic dialogue, Vivienne asks about the nature of the central authority. Quarles, replying, advocates:
a planetary peacekeeping corps with limited but adequate powers of inspection and arrest and sole control of the most destructive weapons;
the corps to be directed by a world president elected by a two-chamber legislature with a Senator from each country and Congressmen according to franchised population, the franchise to exclude the uncivilized and maybe to include multiple ballots for education, real estate ownership, public service etc, thus weighing the scale "'...in favor of reasonable policies.'" (p. 108)
(Comment: No! Democracy limited in favor of a "civilized" man's idea of "reasonable policies" is not democracy.)
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I can't help but think Quarles scheme for a world gov't far too complicated to be plausible or workable. And does it have to be "republic"? Many people might find a monarchy less emotionally "flat" and abstract than a republic. Here I'm thinking of how in DOUBLE STAR the world gov't was an empire headed by the Dutch house of Orange, with the Emperor reigning on Luna with a parliament led by a Supreme Minister.
I have some sympathy for Quarles view that not everyone can or should have the franchise in his world state. Again, I've thought of another idea from Heinlein: in STARSHIP TROOPERS the franchise and citizenship in the Terran Federation was given to those who served the Federation in some demanding or difficult way. Often by doing a stint in the armed forces. The idea being that people who did that PROVED they had public spirit and could think beyond their narrow, petty personal concerns.
And of course we see Poul Anderson working out what I think he might have preferred for a political system on planets like Hermes (MIRKHEIM) and Dennitza (A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS). And he wrote enough about the Terran Empire that I was able to write long letters explicating and commenting on the Empire in ways Anderson thought was reasonable and consistent with what he had written.
Sean
"include multiple ballots for education, real estate ownership, public service etc, thus weighing the scale "
Aside from the setup of "Starship Troopers" see Mark Twain's "The Curious Republic of Gondor" which I think Quarles is influenced by.
Kaor, Jim!
So much I have not read and should real!
And I noticed how Mark Twain used "Gondor," the same name as one of the Numenorean realms in exile in Tolkien's Middle Earth.
Ad astra! Sean
IIRC there is a city of Gondor or Gondar in Ethiopia & both Twain and Tolkien might have copied the name for their writings.
Kaor, Jim!
Oh, I've long known there was a province or region of Ethiopia with a name very similar to "Gondor," as did Tolkien. But I think he only found about that after LOTR was published.
Ad astra! Sean
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