Illustration by Susanne Gold/ text by Ted Ganten
In this clip you will get more information on “Terraism”.

After quite some thoughts on potential for improvement in our current political environment it is time to look into the future. How doe we set the terraistic association up? What kind of president do we need? Whcih structures make sense? And finally which content shoudl the association adress? 32 more weekly blogs.

Whom do we elect for president?

In the general assembly I propose to generally elect people, not parties. The goal would be to elect a person as president, who is trusted to manage functions, funds, projects and staff to achieve the defined purpose. A person who is trusted to steer the fortunes with whom the majority shares basic values. The human being is evolutionarily oriented to trust people and not party programs. This does not contradict the fact that people compete with a “program”. This program should not primarily contain concrete measures but should convey a picture of values and goals of the basis of which future decisions will be made. It does not make sense to hold the president to a promise that after the election turns out not to promote the goals. Furthermore, an essential part of the task of a president is to react appropriately to situations that are at the point of election still unknown. Transparency with respect to the underlying values is part of confidence-building, and from this, examples of actual decisions and proposals for concrete measures can be derived. However, the focus is reversed compared to the usual elections. This person would then organize the board of the association and be responsible for the management.

Will the president go wild?

In our parliamentary democracies, there is a fundamental concern about endowing presidents with too much power. This concern could extend to a comprehensive terraist association. Of course, an association is not comparable to a state, if only because of the lack of an executive and military power. Nevertheless, one or the other reader will be concerned whether a co-determined concept of the association can do without a body comparable to parliament. Is it enough co determination to have once a year a general assembly? Why not? Wikipedia tells us that there are some companies that have existed since the 8th century AD. These include not only hotels and restaurants, but also mechanical engineers and foundries. In the case of religious associations – which after all are also committed to a purpose and partly limited co-determination concepts – there are even significantly older ones. Thus, associations have existed much longer than most states and often still pursue their original purpose – hopefully adapted to current reality. Where ownership structures were in family hands, the managing directors* are usually not even elected according to qualification and orientation, as in the proposed concept.

Is the purpose of an association a guarantor for continuity?

Surely over the last nearly 1500 years in these associations not everything ran perfectly.  However, let’s turn the original question upside down. Would the pursuit of the purpose of these organizations over more than 1000 years have run better, if the managing director had a “parliament” elected by the employees at his/her side inm everyday managment? of course, no option is failsafe. I think that the efficiency gains due to the absence of structures comparable to parliaments at all levels, and the speed with which such a person can make decisions, justifies an attempt to trust the president over the course of one year. Transferred to our democratic structures, I would even doubt whether the people involved in the various parliamentary structures, for example in the district or community council, can make qualified decisions in their area of responsibility at all, or whether they prefer to resort to polemics and party politics. In any case, it seems justified to me to establish a strong association president who is accountable to the general assembly and is not constantly bound in the voting process with other co-determination bodies.

Next week we look into some more prerequisits to building a successful presidental role.