User:Nscwikiedt/Zoecracy

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Zoecracy

Zoecracy is a political form of democratic government carried out by elected representatives of the people that is more inclusive of nature than democracy is capable of being. The term is derived from the Greek words: zoe "life" and kratos "power" and means the 'rule of life'. As of 2010, zoecracy has not been established as a form of government in any country or constituency thereof.

Throughout the 21^st century, humankind is likely to experience a rapid demise of the environment and its ecological fundamentals due to human activity. Therefore, following on the traditions of democracy, and in full view of the whole of the natural world, it is imperative to extend democratic representation to include the rest of life. Mother Nature must no longer be taken for granted, and her rights must be politically and legally acknowledged.

Zoecracy is an evolved form of democracy such that the rest of life is no longer disenfranchised within human forms of government. In this way, zoecracy is truly in the long-term interests of humans for generations unborn. Nature itself must be given meaningful representation in the process of passing legislation that affects it.

Great democracies of the world, such as India, can achieve zoecracy by amending their constitutions to provide non-human life absolute voting rights over a certain percentage or "block vote" of the total legislative vote. One suggestion is that non-human life be given a right to one third (let's agree 34%) of the total vote which would be cast in its favour. 34%, while under-representing nature, may be the most that can be achieved in the 21^st century in view of human nature since it is humans who must amend their constitutions to share governance in this way.

How zoecracy could function

Creating a Green Committee of Judges to review bills

Similar to how the justices of a supreme court are nominated and confirmed through the legislative process, the members of a special judicial committee would be selected to serve unlimited terms. This "Green Committee" would deliberate and decide if a bill to be presented before the legislature impacts the environment. The committee could consist of 7 or 9 members, each of whom are selected based on their legal and environmental credentials.

The interposition of this Green Committee into the legislative process may be more acceptable to mainstream voters if the committee members are chosen in a manner to which voters are accustomed, such as described above through their legislative process. Consequently, the mainstream electorate would be satisfied that such an approach would rule out the undue influence of extremist views whether for or against redressing natural rights. In view of this broad based acceptance, a constitutional amendment to adopt zoecracy could be passed more easily and particularly in countries that already have significant green party representation. The constitutional amendment would specify the size of the Green Committee's block vote and how to increase or decrease this percentage of the total vote.

If the Green Committee decides that a bill impacts the environment, then an automatic block vote of 34% of the total vote is cast in favour of the environmental position, i.e. supportive of the environment. The remaining 66% of the vote is entirely under the control of the legislators.

Examples of legislation

Clear examples of legislation that impact the environment are those bearing on natural resources, water & land use, pollution & waste, energy, and biotechnology. Other and sometimes less clear examples of legislation are those concerned with transportation, agriculture, commerce, and recreation. Examples of legislation least likely to be under the purview of the Green Committee are those on human rights, family, education, media, labour, most types of crime, banking & finance, many types of technology, and medicine.

Casting votes

For example, if a legislative assembly has 100 members and a bill has received the 34% block of votes awarded by the Green Committee, then each of the 100 legislators' votes would have an effective strength of two thirds of a vote that altogether would make up the remaining 66% of the total vote.

If our example of 100 legislators is equally divided over a piece of legislation, the bill could receive 50 two-thirds (33) yea votes and 50 two-thirds (33) nay votes plus the block vote of 34 votes for passage by a total of 67 (33 + 34) yea votes to 33 nay votes.

Legislation subject to the rule of zoecracy can help humankind establish an honourable and sustainable future with nature.

Reference

Dürr, Arjun and Kroenke, Matthias, 2011. “Zoecracy: Mother Nature Knocks on Democracy’s Door.” The Cape Town Globalist, Volume 6, Number 3, p. 26. Online 2011-12-21 available from http://issuu.com/the.cape.town.globalist/docs/globalist_2011_vol6_issue3_web