In April 2012 ‘Year 2112. States become Netstates’ was published. It is a fiction story about a future where (most) of the states has no territory at all because they became advanced forms of social networks.
In October of this same year the concept of Netstates was introduced in the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) as a paper to the Congress ‘Liberties, transparency and politics in Internet’ titled ‘The transition of social networking towards a new concept of aterritorial states’ and finally published on the same title as an chapter of the book ‘Freedom of information on the Internet: threats and safeguards’ Madrid 2013.
In December of 2013 one of the most important ideas of the concept ‘Netstates’, the participatory surveys, has been promoted by the Town Council of Zaragoza (Spain) to be a social responsible enterprise under the Privacy and Society of the Knowledge Foundation to create new ways to participation of the citizens in the life of associations or any form of organization based on people linked to objectives held in common.
The core of the idea is the participation of the citizens (or members of associations or whatever) make better any organization, and it is very simple: Many minds get better ideas than a few of them.
Today the Internet or other sistems of social communication allow ways of political participation never foreseen.
Even when the people who rules could be really smart, it is good to count on the ideas of the people who has elected them because, at least this people has been wise enough to elected them, and consequently, have them apart is just against sense.
This is just one of the reasons because is good to articulate a sistem whereby people can say what they are thinking about specific issues of their common life.
Participatory Surveys
In some States, government issues consultations to the people in order to take some relevant decisions. Sometimes the consultations are mandatory, sometimes they are not, but in most of the cases the government not even has to comply with the result of the consultation if they in the end know better than people what to do.
In any case the iniciative comes from the government and, even when it is provided than people could address proposals to the government or to any power of the state, they can be ignored, or so many requirements has to be fulfilled that in practice it has no efect at all, as a form of political participation.
That is the reason because a new sistem is required where the participation of the citizens or associates could be effective.
In ‘Year 2112 Netstates…’ a new power of the state has arised where an independent Council issue consultations to the citizens, which have to be complied by the other powers (just with some limits). That Council is free to formulate any question and how it has to be raised, but it is not allowed to do any more.
That is the way we propose to increase the participation of members, partners or even citizens, in the search of a more fair society where rulers has to count of the knowledge of all people.