1. Ergonocracy - an overview
The current situation
The uncertain times we are living in today are characterised by various types of unsolved problems, which have led to a widespread lack of hope.
In economic terms, there is no doubt that the capitalist system has not been able to overcome successive financial, speculative and structural crises which were brought on by many factors: overproduction and strong competition, basic errors in banking regulation, excessive public debt, and, most notably, cyclic speculative crises. Therefore, we are witnessing an increasing pace of middle-class impoverishment, a fact that is aggravated by unemployment, globalisation and serious changes in geopolitics. As a result, the gap between the richest and the poorest is widening.
The response to these crises has been very weak. Some countries governments’ opted to raise taxes and cut public spending, including social security, which in several countries, has led to widespread demonstrations of protest and strikes. These have been joined by anti-globalisation movements, environmental protection movements and protests by the unemployed and disgruntled employees. If this situation persists, there is a serious risk of revolutionary actions erupting around the world, which can force the launching of a new wave of autocracies, as has happened throughout so much of our history.
Politically, apart from a few rare exceptions, most international leaders show an enormous lack of talent, charisma and vision for the future. Politicians seem to show no concern for citizens’ views, finding grass-roots involvement processes complex and boring which has led to a growing feeling of mistrust regarding traditional democratic institutions. It has even reached an extreme stage where some angry citizens now dare to question the traditionally almost divine concept of democracy as most citizens demonstrate no fondness for ideologies and find it increasingly difficult to situate their logical viewpoints within the traditional right or left on the political scale.
All these facts highlight the notion that current regimes are clearly unsuited to the needs of 21st century citizens, creating an ever-widening gap between citizens and institutions.
This climate of mistrust is constantly reinforced by news of political and economic corruption, which spreads easily around the world thanks to the rapid speed of modern communication. This phenomenon has affected all levels of society, such as magistrates, entrepreneurs and local community leaders. It can have an especially serious effect on all those in power and on those who have the ability to influence decision-makers.
Scope of Ergonocracy concept
Ergonocracy is a new, coherently integrated regime composed of a set of new political, economic, social and judicial models.
These revolutionary practical models are immediately applicable and focus on the following goals: To promote a system where there is an effective reduction of centralised power with the help of information technology; enabling citizens to participate in the decision-making process;
The fundamental goal of these models is to present a new alternative form of public organisation that is better adapted to the genuine nature of the human being.
The name – Ergonocracy1 - was chosen to highlight the importance of adapting man’s surroundings to his true characteristics, as is also the case with the term “Ergonomics”2, which reflects a concern for the optimisation of man’s well-being and overall system performance in terms of his work environment.
The term “Ergonocracy” applies to a much wider field and maintains, in an analogous way, the notion of humans' adaptability to their environment in all aspects of public life3.
Therefore, as it will be described later, in more detail, a new economic, political, judicial and social regime, created from scratch, taking this common concern into consideration. All aspects of a system should match the true characteristics of human beings, not just at the aggregate level (macro), but also primarily at the individual level (micro). It is based on the assumption that the whole Ergonocracy “structure” was built.
Ergonocracy models reflect a humble approach and aims to perceive how to make use of the positive parts of existing systems without any disruptions, unless absolutely necessary.
Our historical inheritance - the past
Past regimes and rulers throughout history have always used every means at their disposal to secure and extend dominance over their subjects, including the exercise of control over religion, people’s fears, traditions, social habits, morality, etc.
This means that the social rules in effect today do not reflect our true nature, as they result from the opportunistic strategy of past rulers.
The regimes that currently govern us are a result of successive and progressive modifications of all previous systems of government. Although there have been attempts to adapt to the changing times, the reality is that the embryos of this system began with despotic and autocratic regimes. Consequently, what we have today is a heavily patched historical legacy of efforts to improve something that was undoubtedly bad from the very beginning. This contributes to the common observation that today's political regimes are utterly unsuitable for the 21st century citizen's needs. One can conclude that there is an increasing distance between citizens and institutions.
Ergonocracy looks at the past in order to understand the reasons why previous regimes failed. It particularly analyses our distant past in order to grasp the genuine characteristics of our species.
Humans have the advantage, for the first time in history, of being able to benefit from the fruits of the Information Technology Age4. However, in terms of political and social organisation, we have not significantly evolved. This is because when “democratic” regimes were created, IT resources had not yet been invented. We are therefore still being governed by a system that does not make use of all of the technological achievements over the years.
The present system is no longer adapted to our needs. One reason is because people in power - the intermediaries or representatives - have no interest in changing the “status quo” for fear of losing their influence and benefits. In contrast, Ergonocracy models heavily depend on current Information Technology, making intermediaries obsolete.
The purpose of Ergonocracy
Ergonocracy is both a philosophical and practical approach to help resolve society's problems.
It only makes sense in a truly free world, and aims to indicate the path to a society where people have fewer constraints on their individual freedom, including certain specific rights. After all, the scope of Ergonocracy highlights the “person”, respecting all aspects of his or her individuality, defining the minimum necessary limits and restrictions in a context of simplicity, flexibility and transparency.
Ergonocracy will be based on principles such as the maximisation of the individual’s well-being and comfort, including the prospect of a hedonistic lifestyle. Ergonocracy also highlights principles such as reduced human effort, the elimination of repetitive non-skilled work, the intensive use of Information Technology and sustainable, readily available leisure activities.
As an alternative to the concept of a “State”, proponents of Ergonocracy prefer to designate the set of infrastructures and public entities as the Extended Global Community. This scheme rests on quite an innovative political and economic model and avoids the disruptive nature of the capitalist models that predominate in most Western represented democratic countries at the beginning of the 21st century.
Instead, these methods suggest a gradual adaptation by proposing concrete step-by-step phases for the implementation of Ergonocracy models. In fact, these models do not limit themselves to a mere theoretical ideology because they present an eminently practical set of solutions with concrete paths achieving each of the addressed issues.
This is what Ergonocracy is all about: the design of a new regime.
However, Ergonocracy is not a magical recipe with fixed guidelines and dogmatic rules that will be equally applied in all cases. On the contrary, it is understood that each nation has its own idiosyncrasies, which leads to the logical conclusion that each country must find its own path.
Next, we’ll proceed by analysing the most important features of each of the eleven chapters.
Considerations about human nature (see Chapter Two)
When a new model is created in any field of knowledge, we must first start by understanding the traits and the nature of those it is meant to serve. This is why we will begin with an analysis of the real characteristics of contemporary human beings.
In this chapter the characteristics of human beings likely to have the greatest impact on the creation of these models will be addressed, as observed through the lens of Ergonocracy. It can be discerned that:
Among these essential characteristics, the most important is our tribal and nomadic nature, which developed over most of our evolutionary period. The practical implication of this lies in the fact that we must create a model that facilitates the mobility and integration of citizens within their communities, so that they can feel as if they identify with these communities.
We can deduce that if an individual is successfully integrated within his or her “tribe” and if there are no reasons for fear or anguish about health or the future, his or her primary needs will be reduced and he or she will opt not to pursue power in order to reduce the chances of starting conflicts with his or her peers. All models must therefore bring about the integration of the individual within the group.
Another logical conclusion states that it is crucial to create a system that is correctly protected in order to prevent corruption and malicious practices and this can be achieved reducing all personal mandates.
It is also concluded that Ergonocracy rejects the concept of personal leadership, proposing in its place a model based on collective decision-making. The assumption is, also, that people will widely accept all decision-making mechanisms that resemble the practical, simple and direct application of power that occurred in most tribes throughout our evolutionary process.
The Ergonocracy Political Model – the Global community (see Chapter Three)
Politically, as we will observe in Chapter Three, Ergonocracy presents an original system of direct democracy with a political model in which citizens exercise legislative power; voting on legislation directly via an electronic platform (internet web portal, called Community Web portal). This portal is designed to give each citizen the opportunity to participate in the voting process and to be informed about every proposed law allowing the functioning of the three powers: Legislative, Executive and Judicial. It will be through this portal that all interaction between citizens and Public Function Concessionary Companies takes place as it will permit contact by various means, including telephone, computer, or video conference.
According to this model, executive power is divided into predetermined public functions and carried out by service companies called Concessionary Companies, by way of public tender. These are chosen via a direct citizen voting process through an open request for tender, commonly abbreviated as RFT5 which analyses the budget programmes and purposes being proposed by each company-candidate. This objective is predetermined by citizens using their own specifications of open tender.
Each Concessionary Company will have the responsibility to manage another RFT process type - to choose each Sub-Concessionary Company that will execute each task (sub-functions) which are all operational activities.
Taking into account the described framework, power would be distributed among the whole population, leading to the extinction of all political representatives and intermediaries. Thus, all citizens are both leaders and followers. All personal mandates would be abolished, with only one exception: the Arbitral Council, which will essentially act as a moderator.
This system will be controlled by three Controlling Entities which purpose is to find the maximum number of irregularities as possible, whose revenue depends on that.
All laws governing this model should be confined to a simplified document that all citizens are required to know and symbolically sign when they reach the age of adulthood.
The Ergonocracy Social Model - the local community (see Chapter Four)
The Ergonocracy Local Community replaces what in Western democracies is called the City Council. In social terms, we will analyse the Local Community and cover all matters associated with the citizen. We will propose a new management model, employing similar mechanisms as those proposed for the Global Community. This also applies to the principles, especially those concerning the dilution of power and the importance of total transparency.
The Community Web portal will also be used in order to guarantee necessary communication among citizens and among the various agents involved in Local Community management processes. For this purpose, a “URL” connection or a “shortcut” will be established to act as a gateway, redirected to a Sub-Portal managed by the Local Community Concessionary Company.
Every Local Community is supposed to elect its own Neighbour Commission, which will play a similar role to the Arbitral Council in the Global Community political structure.
Each citizen can choose to live in any Local Community of Common Interest, which will allow the agglomeration of people with common interests and similar ways of life. It will be possible to set a desired profile for new neighbours which will have to be chosen by an overall majority of citizens. This model has the advantage of easing restrictions, facilitating the choices of common public investments and helping to create an environment that allows for the integration of the citizen into the community.
Undoubtedly, this is an attempt to recreate the positive aspects of the first human nomadic tribal environment. The principle of mobility is enhanced and a new housing model emerges, where the citizen would be able to acquire Housing Right Titles and therefore be able to change residence in a relatively easy manner while still having the financial advantage of investing in the acquisition of his own assets.
The Ergonocracy Economic Model (see Chapter Five)
It is crucial to minimise the adverse effects caused by the capitalist system, such as glaring economic inequality, one-sided human exploitation, speculative cycles, structural imbalance and the concentration of capital in massive corporations, etc.
It is for this reason why, in terms of microeconomics, we created a new economic system that is better adapted to mankind’s characteristics, since this model has the main purpose of proposing a naturally balanced system that will do away with the exploitation of man by man. This implies that the current concept of employers and employees will cease to exist and in its place there will be a member-colleague business relationship, although certain partners may still have more influence in the organisation. The result is a single working class, which will simultaneously aggregate capital and labour.
This model attempts to create the best of two worlds, to keep the freedoms and advantages of private initiative on one hand (assuming that all companies will be profit-oriented), and the elimination of human exploitation on the other.
For this to happen, new regulations will have to be established banning anyone from working directly for another entity or another person. Each citizen will only be allowed to work in a company where he is a shareholder. Only companies will be allowed to perform services, to produce, and to generate invoices. In addition, another fundamental guideline will state that every working citizen hold at least five percent of the shares of that company which means that each company will have a maximum of twenty members. We will demonstrate how to effectively convert existing companies into this Ergonocracy model, presenting a few practical models and examples and we will show how to transform this apparent limitation into an economic opportunity.
It will be revealed why this type of economic structure - in which all companies are small and flexible units - will be better in economic terms, being that the great advantage of this system (where all employees are members of their companies) is that everyone has a vested interest in the organisation and genuinely strives for its success, also emphasising the importance of meritocracy. Besides, all large companies will have to be subdivided into smaller businesses, managed by the parent company in order to experience a “tentacle” type of growth, virtually promoting the development of a single social class of entrepreneurs.
Each company partner will have the right and duty to participate in the decision-making process. His or her vote will count according to the percentage of shares held.
In macroeconomic terms the Ergonocracy Economic Model defends the following actions: a simplified tax model and enhancement of tight budget control measures; using money only in digital form; replacing stock markets with direct ownership mechanisms; redefining the concept of interest rates; assigning a specific role to venture capital companies; defining an innovative way to manage the financial needs of public entities.
Then, some of the most relevant economic trends will be specified, including the development of e-commerce, the extinction of intermediaries, the company’s customisation offer, and the risks of corporations will also be analysed with some suggested amendments on international trade.
The Ergonocracy Judicial and Security Model (see Chapter Six)
Ergonocracy presents a judicial model supported by Information Technology, introducing mechanisms to make justice work more quickly and efficiently, favouring the simplification of all legislation, with transparency and speedy proceedings.
It also advocates a new concept of criminal court organisation where there should be a close partnership among criminal police investigation teams and judges. This model defends the classification of the treatment and punishment of criminals (physical separation) according to the type of crime, and the motives, they have committed. New strategies for the rehabilitation of convicted felons will also be presented.
A drug problem solution model will also be offered for discussion.
Furthermore, in terms of security, a model will be presented that will make use of the technological means that are available today for military purposes, advocating a concept of quick alert and quick intervention, opting for an intervention method instead of the present reactive model of police patrol.
The idea is to institute powerful deterrents aimed at drastically reducing crime as most criminals will get caught red-handed.
The Ergonocracy Transport and Distribution Model (see Chapter Seven)
Currently, we experience the increasing use of the internet in the world of commerce, but only a small portion of all internet transactions are likely to be concluded immediately, i.e. after the consumer makes the payment for the order.
Thus, the aim of the CDB - Community Delivery Box network tunnels - is to allow the implementation of an immediate process for sending and receiving merchandise ordered via the internet, or sent between any individuals or companies for all types of transactions. This system will allow the immediate resolution of asset transactions involved in the process of internet commerce, establishing new frontiers in the world of digital (and physical) communications.
In effect, the CDB system would simply be another underground network of open tunnels, created in such a way to allow a local terminal at each residence and/or each company, ending in the most suitable place.
This system will allow a revolutionary change in the consumer’s life as it will provide a whole new set of services that do not exist today.
In this chapter a suggestion for a driverless autonomous vehicles model and a public automated self-driving vehicles model will also be presented.
Gradual transition to Ergonocracy (see Chapter Eight):
A few strategies to overcome Ergonocracy opposition by the ruling classes will be recommended, however it must be emphasised that Ergonocracy must never be implemented by force.
After the path is opened to implement Ergonocracy, a detailed three-stage method may be useful that specifies the most critical steps necessary to change present reality into desired destiny - a fully implemented Ergonocratic regime.
The Ergonotopy - Utopian Stage (see Chapter Nine)
It is critical to emphasise that Ergonotopy has nothing to do with Ergonocracy. Ergonotopy is an imaginary, utopian world, while Ergonocracy models are practical, objective and ready to be implemented in planned phases whenever citizens decide to do so. Although Ergonotopy might be understood as a logical, long term continuation of Ergonocratic trends, it is not its final purpose as Ergonocracy has no specific final purpose.
Ergonotopy is basically a utopian scenario describing a possible ideal future. It presents a set of utopian goals for humanity’s distant future, a time when everything that is bad about human life will have been eliminated. The necessary conditions for this to be possible will be detailed and also the changes it may imply.
Hope …
Ergonocracy models are a possible approach to the resolution of the economic problems and the political crises that characterise our times.
It may also be a response to the citizen’s increasing aversion to politics, as well as to a widening level of distrust of most politicians and institutions.
It can also be interpreted as a new world order, which can bring much needed hope to all people, particularly to young people who, when entering the job market, face a future with few expectations for safety and quality of life. This is what currently happens around the world, including the developed countries.
These Ergonocratic models are at pace with the great tendencies that influence our times, namely, increasing population aging, climatic change, globalisation and the new geopolitical shifting movements.
In an era where information travels very quickly; where people have become increasingly more demanding and aware of their rights; where all types of frontiers tend to be torn down, it makes more sense that people take their own destiny in their own hand, and this is what Ergonocracy is all about.
Some people will see in Ergonocracy a dangerous regime that will kill capitalism; others will see in Ergonocracy the only mutation that will allow capitalism to survive.
The most important notion is that Ergonocracy will probably be the safest radical way to “conserve” the best of our “Old World”.
The following chapters incorporate the core models of Ergonocracy and the steps that must be undertaken in order to implement them. A separate analysis is done for each political, economic, social and judicial model. But first, in order to clarify some ideas, we will discuss how Ergonocracy sees human nature and we will also identify the most relevant human characteristics that were considered while creating these models.