Art. I · About Poliarchism
What is Poliarchism?
A novel political doctrine: people’s politics, institutionalized. It starts from the citizen and asks how participation can become part of how the state works.
The tagline
“Poliarchism: People’s Politics, Institutionalized.”
Poliarchism is a political doctrine developed by Philips Ferdinand R. Saavedra. It begins from a simple observation: for most citizens, politics happens once every few years, at the ballot box, and in between, public decisions are made for the people rather than with them.
Poliarchism’s answer is not a new party or a new set of leaders. It is a proposal about institutions: that the people’s participation in public decisions be designed into the institutions of government, with defined procedures, public records and answers, so that it is lawful, routine and lasting.
It is presented as a body of ideas open to discussion, research and academic examination, for students, teachers, churches, organizations, public servants and every citizen who wants to understand how governance could work better.
Origins
Why it was developed
Reforms often change the faces in office and leave the system as it was. Participation tools that already exist in law are seldom used. Many citizens have never read the budget their taxes pay for.
Poliarchism was developed to address these gaps as one design problem: citizens who understand power and public money, standing channels through which they can take part, reform of the rules rather than only the officials, and a state built around a participating people.
Principles and approach
The framework in five layers
Eleven concepts, arranged from the people outward. Each layer depends on the one inside it.
- I
The People
Every institution starts from the citizen and answers to the citizen.
The citizen at the centre of every institution.
- II
Citizenship
Citizens who understand power and public money, not only on election day.
- III
Participation
Lawful, standing ways for the people to propose, decide and review.
- IV
Reform
Change to the rules and the system, not only to the faces in office.
- V
The State
A state designed so that people’s participation is part of how it works.
11 concepts in all. See the whole framework →
The five-volume series
One volume for each layer
Founder and author
Philips Ferdinand R. Saavedra
Founder · Developer · Author. The author of the five-volume series and the developer of the doctrine.