THE GREEN BOOK
- Part One
The Solution of the Problem of DEMOCRACY
'The Authority of the People'
THE INSTRUMENT
OF GOVERNING
'The Instrument of Governing is the prime political problem which faces human
communities.'
Even the conflict within the family is, often, the result of this problem.
'This problem has become serious since the emergence of modern societies.'
Peoples, nowadays, face this persistent problem and communities suffer from
various risks and grave consequences to which it leads. They have not yet succeeded
in solving it finally and democratically.
The Green Book presents the final solution to the problem of the instrument
of governing.
All political systems in the world today are the product of the struggle for
power between instruments of governing. The struggle may be peaceful or armed,
such as the conflict of classes, sects, tribes, parties or individuals. The
result is always the victory of an instrument of governing -- be it an individual,
group, party or class and the defeat of the people, i.e. the defeat of genuine
democracy.
Political struggle that results in the victory of a candidate with 51 per cent
of the votes leads to a dictatorial governing body disguised as a false democracy,
since 49 percent of the electorate is ruled by an instrument of governing they
did not vote for, but had imposed upon them. This is dictatorship.
Besides, this political conflict may produce a governing body that represents
only a minority, for when votes are distributed among several candidates, one
of them polls more than any other candidate. But if the votes polled by those
who received less are added up, they can constitute an over-whelming majority.
However, the candidate with fewer votes wins and his success is regarded as
legitimate and democratic! In actual fact, dictatorship is established under
the cover of false democracy. This is the reality of the political systems prevailing
in the world today. They are dictatorial systems and it seems clear that they
falsify genuine democracy.
PARLIAMENTS
'No representation in lieu of the people.'
Parliaments are the backbone traditional democracy as it exists today. A parliament
is a misrepresentation of the people and parliamentary governments are a misleading
solution to the problem of democracy. A parliament is originally founded to
represent the people, but this in itself, is undemocratic as democracy means
the authority of the people and not an authority acting on their behalf. The
mere existence of a parliament means the absence of the people, but true democracy
exists only through the participation of the people, not through the activity
of their representatives. Parliaments have been a legal barrier between the
peoples and the exercise of authority, excluding masses from power while usurping
sovereignty in their place.
Peoples are left with only false external appearance of democracy manifested
in long queues to cast their votes in the ballot boxes.
To lay bare the character of the parliament, we have to look to the origin of
such a parliament.
'Representation is a denial of participation.' The parliament is either
elected from constituencies or a party or a coalition of parties, or is formed
by some method of appointment. But all these procedures are undemocratic, for
dividing the population into constituencies means that one member of parliament
represents thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of people, depending
on the size of population.
'Representation is falsification of democracy.'
It also means that the member keeps no popular organisational link with the
electors since he, like other members, is looked upon as a representative of
the whole people. This is what the prevailing traditional democracy requires.
The masses, therefore, are completely isolated from the representative and he,
in turn, is totally separated from them. For immediately after winning their
votes he himself usurps their sovereignty and acts instead of them. The prevailing
traditional democracy endows the member of a parliament with a sacredness and
immunity denied to other individual members of the people. That means that parliaments
have become a means of plundering and usurping the people's authority. Hence
the people have the right to struggle, through the popular revolution, to destroy
instruments which usurp democracy and sovereignty and take them away from the
masses. They also have the right to utter the new principle, no representation
in lieu of the people. If, however, the parliament emerges from a party as a
result of winning an election, it is a parliament of the party and not of the
people. It represents the party and not the people, and the executive power
assigned by the parliament is that of the winning party and not of the people.
The same is true of the parliament in which each party holds a number of seats.
For the members of the parliament represent their party and not the people,
and the power established by such a coalition is the power of the combined parties
and not of the people. Under such systems the people are victims fooled and
exploited by political bodies. The people stand silently in long queues to cast
their votes in the ballot box the same way as they throw other papers into the
dustbin. This is the traditional democracy prevalent in the whole world, whether
the system is one-party, two-party, multi-party or non-party. Thus it becomes
clear that representation is fraud. Assemblies formed by a method of appointment
or hereditary succession do not fall under any form of democracy. Moreover,
since the system of elected parliaments is based on propaganda to win votes,
it is a demagogic system in the real sense of the word. and votes can be bought
and falsified. Poor people fail to compete in the election campaign and it is
always the rich - and only the rich -- who come out victorious.
Philosophers, thinkers and writers advocated the theory of representative government
at a time when the peoples, without realizing it, were driven like sheep by
kings, sultans and conquerors. The ultimate aspiration of the people of those
times was to have someone to represent them before such rulers. Even that aspiration
was nullified. Peoples went through long and bitter struggles to attain what
they aspired to. After the successful establishment of the era of the republics
and the beginning of the era of the masses, it is unreasonable that democracy
should mean the electing of only a few representatives to act on behalf of great
masses. This is an obsolete theory and an outdated experience.
The whole authority must be the people's. The most tyrannical dictatorships
the world has known have existed under the shadow of parliaments.
THE PARTY
'The party system aborts democracy'
The party is the contemporary dictatorship. It is the modern dictatorial instrument
of governing. The party is the rule of a part over the whole. It is the latest
dictatorial instrument. As the party is not individual it exercises a sham democracy
through establishing parliaments and committees and through the propaganda of
its members. The party is not a democratic instrument at all because it is composed
of people who have common interests, a common outlook or a common culture; or
who belong to the same locality or have the same belief.
'To make a party you split society'
They form a party to achieve their ends, impose their outlook or extend the
hold of their belief on the society as a whole. A party's aim is to achieve
power under the pretext of carrying out its program. And yet, democratically,
none of these parties should govern the whole people because of the diversity
of interests, ideas, temperaments, localities and beliefs, which constitute
the people's identity. The party is a dictatorial instrument of governing that
enables those with one outlook and a common interest to rule the people as a
whole. Compared with the people, the party is a minority.
The purpose of forming a party is to create an instrument to rule the people;
namely to rule over non-members of the party. For the party is, fundamentally,
based on an arbitrary authoritarian theory . . . i.e. the domination of the
members of the party over the rest of individual members of the people. The
party presupposes that its accession to power is the way to attain its ends,
assuming that its objectives are the objectives of the people.
That is the theory of the justification of party dictatorship, which is the
basis for any dictatorship. No matter how many parties there are, the theory
remains one and the same. But the existence of many parties escalates the struggle
for power and this results in the destruction of any achievements of the people
and of any socially beneficial plans. Such destruction is seized upon by the
opposition party as a justification to undermine the position of the ruling
party so that it may take over from them. The parties in their struggle resort,
if not to arms, which rarely happens, then to denouncing and stultifying the
actions of each other. This is a battle which is inevitably waged at the expense
of the higher and vital interests of the society.
Some, if not all, of those higher interests will be victims of the power struggle
of instruments of governing.
For the destruction of those interests supports the opposition party or parties
in their argument against the ruling party. The opposition party, as an instrument
of governing, has to oust the ruling body in order to have access to authority.
To prove the unfitness of the instrument of governing, the opposition party
has to destroy its achievements and to cast doubt on its plans, even if those
plans are beneficial to the society. Consequently the interests and programs
of the society become victims of the parties' struggle for power. Such struggle
is, therefore, politically, socially and economically destructive to the society,
despite the fact that it creates political activity.
Besides, the struggle results in the victory of another instrument of governing,
i.e., the fall of one party and the rise of another. But it is a defeat for
the people, a defeat for democracy.
Furthermore, parties can be bought or bribed either from inside or outside.
Originally, the party is formed to represent the people. Then the leading group
of the party represents its members and the supreme leader of the party represents
the leading group. It becomes clear that the party game is a deceitful farce
based on a sham form of democracy which has a selfish content based on maneuvers,
tricks and political games. All these emphasize that the party-system is a dictatorial,
yet modern, instrument. The party system is an overt, not a covert, dictatorship.
The world has not yet passed beyond it and it is rightly called 'the dictatorship
of the modern age'.
The parliament of the winning party is indeed a parliament of the party, as
the executive power assigned by this parliament is the power of the party over
the people. Party power, which is supposed to be for the good of the whole people,
is actually a bitter enemy of a part of the people, namely the opposition party
or parties and their supporters. So the opposition is not a popular check on
the ruling party, but is itself seeking a chance to replace the ruling party.
According to modern democracy, the legal check on the ruling party is the parliament,
the majority of whose members are from that ruling party. That is to say, checking
is in the hands of the ruling party and rule is in the hands of the checking
party. Thus become clear the deceptiveness, falsity and invalidity of the political
theories dominant in the world today, from which contemporary traditional democracy
emerges.
The party is only a part of the people, but the sovereignty of the people is
indivisible.
The party governs on behalf of the people, but the principle is no representation
in lieu of the people.
The party system is the modern tribal and sectarian system. The society governed
by one party is exactly like that which is governed by one tribe or one sect.
The party, as stated above, represents the outlook of a certain group of people,
or the interests of one group of the society, or one belief or one locality.
Such a party must be a minority compared to the whole people just as the tribe
and the sect are. The minority has common interests or a sectarian belief. From
such interests or belief, the common outlook is formed.
Only blood-relationship distinguishes a tribe from a party and even at the foundation
of a party there may be blood-relationship. There is no difference between party
struggles and tribal or sectarian struggles for power. And if tribal and sectarian
rule is politically rejected and disavowed, then the party system must similarly
be rejected and disavowed. Both of them tread the same path and lead to the
same end. The negative and destructive effect on the society of the tribal and
sectarian struggles is identical to the negative and destructive effect of the
party struggle.
CLASS
The class political system is the same as the party, the tribal, or sectarian
system, i.e. a class dominates the society in the same way that a party, tribe
or sect does. The class, like the party, sect and tribe, is a group of people
from the society who share common interests. Common interests arise from the
existence of a group of people bound together by blood-relationship, belief,
culture, locality or standard of living. Also class, party, sect and tribe emerge
from similar factors leading to similar results, i.e. they emerge because blood-relationship,
belief, standard of living culture and locality create a common outlook to achieve
a common end. Thus emerges the social structure in the forms of class, party,
tribe or sect that eventually becomes a political conception directed toward
realizing the outlook and ends of that group. In all cases the people are neither
the class, the party, the tribe nor the sect; these are no more than a part
of the people and constitute a minority. If a class, party tribe or sect dominates
a society, the whole system becomes a dictatorship.
However, a class or tribal coalition is better than a party coalition because
the people consist originally of a group of tribes. One seldom finds people
who do not belong to a tribe, and all people belong to a certain class. But
no party or parties embrace all the people and therefore the party or party
coalition represents a minority compared to the masses outside its membership.
Under genuine democracy there is no excuse for one class to crush other classes
for its own benefit, no excuse for one party to crush other parties for its
own interests, no excuse for one tribe to crush other tribes for its own benefit
and no excuse for one sect to crush other sects for its own interests.
To allow such actions means abandoning the logic of democracy and resorting
to the logic of force. Such an action is dictatorial, because it is not in the
interest of the whole society, which does not consist of only one class or tribe
or sect or the members of one party. There is no justification for such an action.
The dictatorial justification is that the society is actually made up of various
parts, and one of the parts undertakes the liquidation of other parts in order
to stand solely in power.
This action is then not in the interest of the whole society, but in the interest
of a certain class, tribe, sect or party, i.e., it is in the interest of those
who replace the society. The action of liquidation is originally directed against
the members of the society who do not belong to the party, the class, the tribe
or the sect which undertakes the liquidation.
The society torn apart by party struggles is similar to one torn by tribal and
sectarian struggles.
The party that is formed in the name of a class automatically becomes a substitute
for that class and continues until it becomes a replacement for the class hostile
to it.
Any class which becomes heir to a society, inherits, at the same time, its characteristics.
That is to say that if the working class crushes all other classes, for instance,
it becomes heir of the society, that is, it becomes the material and social
base of the society.
The heir bears the traits of the one he inherits from, though they may not be
evident at once. As time passes, attributes of other eliminated classes emerge
in the very ranks of the working class. And the possessors of those characteristics
take the attitudes and points of view appropriate to their characteristics.
Thus the working class turns out to be a separate society, showing the same
contradictions as the old society. The material and moral standards of the members
of the society are diverse at first but then there emerge the factions that
automatically develop into classes, like those which had been eliminated. Thus
the struggle for domination of the society starts again. Each group of people,
then each faction and finally each new class, tries to become the instrument
of governing.
The material base of the society is not stable because it has a social aspect.
The instrument of governing of the single material base of the society will,
perhaps, be stable for some time, but it will pass away as soon as new material
and social standards emerge out of the same single material base.
Any society with class conflict was in the past a one-class society but, due
to inevitable evolution, the conflicting classes emerged from that one class.
The class that expropriates the possessions of others in order to maintain the
instrument of governing for its own interests, will find that material possessions
have brought within that class what material possessions usually bring about
within the society as a whole.
In short, attempts to unify the material base of the society to solve the problem
of government or to put an end to the struggle in favor of party, class, sect
or tribe, have failed, such as the efforts to satisfy the masses through the
election of representatives or by organizing plebiscites to discover their views.
To go on with these efforts has become a waste of time and a mockery of the
people.
PLEBISCITES
'The fallacy of a 'Yes' or 'No' Plebiscite'
Plebiscites are a fraud against democracy. Those who say 'yes' and those who
say 'no' do not, in fact, express their will. They have been silenced through
the conception of modern democracy. They have been allowed to utter only one
word: either 'yes' or 'no'. This is the most cruel and oppressive dictatorial
system. He who says 'no' should give reasons for his answer. He should explain
why he did not say 'yes'. And he who says 'yes' should give reasons for approval
and why he did not say 'no'. Everyone should make clear what he wants and the
reasons for his approval or rejection.
What road, then, must human groups take to get rid, once and for all, of the
tyrannical and dictatorial ages?
Since the intricate problem in the case of democracy is the instrument of governing,
expressed by conflicts of classes, parties and individuals; and since the electoral
and plebiscite methods were invented to cover the failure of those unsuccessful
experiments to solve this problem, the solution lies in finding an instrument
of governing other than these which are subject to conflict and which represent
only one side of the society. That is to say, an instrument of governing which
is not a party, a class, a sect or a tribe, but an instrument of governing which
is the people as a whole. It neither represents the people nor speaks in their
name.
No representation in lieu of the people and representation is fraud. If that
instrument can be brought into being the problem will be solved, popular democracy
will be realized, mankind will have put an end to tyrannical eras and dictatorial
systems, and the authority of the people will have taken their place.
The Green Book presents the solution to the problem of the instrument of governing.
It indicates for the people the way to pass from the eras of dictatorship to
the eras of genuine democracy.
This new theory is based on the authority of the people, without representation
or deputation. It realizes direct democracy in an orderly and effective form.
It differs from the older attempt at direct democracy, which could not be applied
in practice and which was frivolous because it lacked popular organization on
the lower levels.
POPULAR CONGRESSES
AND PEOPLE'S COMMITTEES
Popular congresses are the only means to achieve popular democracy. Any system
of government other than popular congresses is undemocratic.
All the prevailing systems of government in the world today are undemocratic,
unless they adopt this method.
Popular congresses are the end of the journey of the masses' movement in its
quest for democracy.
Popular congresses and people's committees are the final fruit of the people's
struggle for democracy.
'No democracy without popular congresses'
Popular congresses and people's committees are not creations of the imagination
so much as they are the product of human thought which has absorbed all human
experiments to achieve democracy. Direct democracy is the ideal method, which,
if realized in practice, is indisputable and non-controversial. The nations
departed from direct democracy because, however small a people might be, it
was impossible to gather them all together at one
time in order to
discuss, study and decide on their policy. Direct democracy remained an Utopian
idea far from reality. It has been replaced by various theories of government
such as representative assemblies, parties, coalitions, and plebiscites. All
led to the isolation of the people from political activity and to the plundering
of the sovereignty of the people and the assumption of their authority by the
successive and conflicting instruments of governing beginning with the individual,
on through the class, the sect, the tribe, the parliament and the party.
The Green Book announces to the people the happy discovery of the way to direct
democracy, in a practical form. Since no two intelligent people can dispute
the fact that direct democracy is the ideal -- but its method has been impossible
to apply -- and since this Third Universal Theory provides us with a realistic
experiment in direct democracy, the problem of democracy in the world is finally
solved. All that the masses need do now is to struggle to put an end to all
forms of dictatorial rule in the world today, to all forms of what is falsely
called democracy -- from parliaments to the sect, the tribe, the class and to
the one-party, the two-party and the multi-party systems.
Democracy has but one method and one theory. The disparity and dissimilarity
of the systems claiming to be democratic is evidence that they are not democratic
in fact. The people's authority has only one face and it can be realized only
by one method, namely, popular congresses and people's committees. No democracy
without popular congresses and committees everywhere.
First, the people are divided into basic popular congresses. Each basic popular
congress chooses its secretariat. The secretariats together form popular congresses,
which are other than the basic ones. Then the masses of those basic popular
congresses choose administrative people's committees to replace government administration.
Thus all public utilities are run by people's committees which will be responsible
to the basic popular congresses and these dictate the policy to be followed
by the people's committees and supervise its execution. Thus, both the administration
and the supervision become popular and the outdated definition of democracy
-- Democracy is the supervision of the government by the people -- comes to
an end. It will be replaced by the right definition Democracy is the supervision
of the people by people.
All citizens who are members of those popular congresses belong, professionally
and functionally, to categories. They have, therefore, to establish their own
unions and syndicates in addition to being, as citizens, members of the basic
popular congresses or the people's committees. Subjects discussed by basic popular
congresses or the people's committees, syndicates and unions, will take their
final shape in the General People's Congress, where the secretariats of popular
congresses, people's committees, syndicates and unions meet. What is drafted
by the General People's Congress, which meets annually or periodically, will
in turn, be submitted to popular congresses, people's committees, syndicates
and unions. The people's committees, responsible to the basic popular congresses
will, then, start executive action. The General People's Congress is not a gathering
of members or ordinary persons as is the case with parliaments. It is a gathering
of the basic popular congresses, the people's committees, the unions, the syndicates
and all professional associations.
In this way, the problem of the instrument of governing is, as a matter of fact,
solved and dictatorial instruments will disappear. The people are the instrument
of governing and the problem of democracy in the world is completely solved.
THE LAW OF SOCIETY
Law is the other problem parallel to the problem of the instrument of governing.
It has not yet been solved in the modern age although it has been solved at
certain periods of history.
It is invalid and undemocratic for a committee or a parliament to be entitled
to draft the law for the society. It is also invalid and undemocratic for an
individual, a committee or a parliament to amend or abrogate the law of the
society.
What, then, is the law of the society?
Who drafts it and what is its importance to democracy?
The natural law of any society is either tradition (custom) or religion.
Any other attempt to draft law for any society, outside these two sources, is
invalid and illogical. Constitutions are not the law of the society. A constitution
is a basic man-made law. That basic man-made law should have a source for its
justification. The problem of freedom in the modern age is that constitutions
have become the law of society, and constitutions are based on nothing other
than the views of the instruments of the dictatorial rule prevailing in the
world, ranging from the individual to the party. The proof of this is that there
is a difference between constitutions although man's freedom is the same. The
reason for the difference is the disparity in the conceptions of the instruments
of governing. This is the point where freedom is vulnerable in the systems of
the contemporary world. The method by which the instruments of governing seek
to dominate the peoples is established in the constitution and the people are
compelled to accept it under the force of laws derived from that constitution,
which is itself the product of the temperament and outlook of the instrument
of governing.
The law of the dictatorial instruments of governing has replaced natural law.
Because man-made law has replaced natural law, standards are lost. Man is the
same everywhere. His physical constitution is the same and so is his instinct.
For this reason natural law became a logical law for man as one and the same.
Then the constitutions, which are man-made laws, began to look at man as not
one and the same. They have no justification for that conception other than
the will of instruments of governing -- the individual, the parliament, the
tribe or the party -- to dominate the peoples. So we see that constitutions
are usually changed when the instruments of governing change. This proves that
the constitution is the product of the temperament of the instruments of governing
and exists to serve their interests. It is not natural law. This is the impending
danger to freedom latent wherever the genuine law of human society is absent
and is replaced by man-made laws designed by the instrument of governing to
rule the masses.
Properly the method of government should be in accordance with the laws of society,
not vice versa.
Therefore, the law of the society is not subject to drafting and codification.
The significance of law lies in the fact that it is the decisive factor which
distinguishes between the true and false, the right and the wrong, and the individuals'
rights and duties. Freedom is threatened unless society has a sacred law based
on stable rules which are not subject to change or substitution by any instrument
of governing.
On the contrary, it is incumbent upon the instrument of governing to abide
by the law of society. Nevertheless, peoples throughout the world are now being
ruled by man-made laws that are liable to change and abrogation be- cause of
the struggle for power between instruments of governing. Plebiscites on constitutions
are not enough because plebiscites in themselves are a sham democracy, permitting
only yes or no. Under man-made laws, peoples are compelled to accept plebiscites.
A plebiscite on a constitution does not mean that it is the law of society,
it means that it is only a constitution, or that 'thing' subject to plebiscite,
nothing else.
The law of the society is an eternal human heritage that is not the possession
of the living only. Hence, the drafting of a constitution and holding a plebiscite
by present voters are farcical.
Encyclopedias of man-made laws derived from man-made constitutions are full
of material penalties against man while traditional law seldom has these penalties.
Traditional law imposes moral, not material penalties, that are appropriate
for man. Religion embraces and absorbs tradition. Most material penalties in
religion are postponed until the Day of Judgment. The major part of its rules
are exhortations, instructions and answers to questions. This law shows proper
respect to man. Religion does not acknowledge temporal penalties, except in
extreme cases where these are necessary to protect society.
Religion embraces tradition, which is an expression of the natural life of the
peoples. Thus, religion, embracing tradition, is an affirmation of natural law.
Non-religious, non-traditional laws are invented by one man for use against
another. Therefore they are invalid because they are not built upon the natural
source of tradition and religion.
WHO SUPERVISES
THE CONDUCT OF SOCIETY?
The question that arises is: who preserves the society from any deviation from
the law? Democratically, there is no group whatever that can claim the right
of representative supervision over the society. 'Society is its own supervisor.'
Any pretension by any individual or group that it is responsible for law is
dictatorship.
Democracy means the responsibility of the whole society, and supervision should
be carried out by the whole society. That is democracy and its proper implementation
is through the democratic instrument of governing, resulting from the organization
of society itself in basic popular congresses and from the people's rule through
the popular congresses and the General People's Congress (National Congress)
in which come together the popular congresses, administrative people's committees,
unions, syndicates and all other professional organizations.
According to this theory, the people are the instrument of governing and in
this case they are their own supervisor. In this way self-supervision of the
society over its law is realized.
HOW DOES SOCIETY
READJUST ITS DIRECTION IN CASE OF DEVIATION FROM ITS LAW?
If an instrument of governing is dictatorial, as in political systems in the
world today, the society's vigilance towards deviation from law will have only
one way to gain readjustment.
That is violence, which means revolution against the instrument of governing.
This violence or revolution, even if it is an expression of the feeling of the
society against deviation, is not carried out by the whole society. It is undertaken
only by those who have the initiative and boldness to proclaim the will of the
society. However, this approach is the way to dictatorship, for this revolutionary
initiative increases the opportunity for an instrument of governing, representative
of the people, to arise. This means that the instrument of governing is still
dictatorial. Moreover, violence and change by force are themselves undemocratic,
although they take place as a result of the existence of a previous undemocratic
situation. The society that is still entangled around this resultant is a backward
society. What, then, is the solution?
The solution is for the people to be the instrument of governing from basic
popular congresses to the General People's Congress. The government administration
is abolished and replaced by people's committees. The General People's Congress
should be a national congress where basic popular congresses, people's administrative
committees, unions, syndicates and all professional associations come together.
If a deviation from the society's law takes place under this system, it should
be dealt with through a democratic revision rather than by force.
This is not a process of voluntary choice of the method of change or of treatment,
rather it is an inevitable result of the nature of such a democratic system.
In such a case, there is no outside group against which violent action may be
directed or which may be held responsible for deviation.
THE PRESS
'Democracy means popular rule not popular expression'
The natural person has freedom to express himself even if, when he was mad,
he behaves irrationally to express his madness. The corporate person also is
free to express his corporate identity. In these cases, the first represents
only himself, and the second represents no more than the group of natural persons
composing his corporate person. The society consists of many natural and many
corporate persons. Therefore, when a person, for instance, expresses himself
in an irrational manner, that does not mean that the other persons of the society
also are mad. The expression of a natural person is only self-expression, and
that of a corporate person is only the expression of the interests or viewpoints
of persons forming the corporate person. For example, the company for the production
and sale of tobacco only expresses the interests of the participants in that
company, i.e. those who benefit from the production and sale of tobacco although
it is harmful to the health of others.
The press is a means of expression of the society and is not a means of expression
of a natural or corporate person. Logically and democratically, the press, therefore,
cannot be owned by either of these.
Any newspaper owned by an individual is his own and expresses only his point
of view. Any claim that a newspaper represents public opinion is groundless
because it actually expresses the viewpoints of a natural person. Democratically,
a natural person should not be permitted to own any means of publication or
information.
However he has the natural right to express himself by any means, even if it
is in an irrational manner to prove his madness. Any journal issued by a trading
association or by a chamber of commerce is only a means of expression for this
particular social group. It presents its own point of view and not the viewpoint
of public opinion. This applies to all other corporate and natural persons in
society. The democratic press is that which is issued by a popular committee
comprising all the various categories of society. In this case only, and not
otherwise, will the press or any information medium be an expression of the
whole society and a bearer of the viewpoint of its categories and thereby the
press or information medium will be indeed democratic.
If the Medical Association issues a journal, it must be purely medical.
Similarly this applies to other categories. The natural person has the right
to express only himself and he is not entitled from the democratic point of
view to express anybody else. In this way, what is called the problem of press
freedom in the world will be solved radically and democratically.
The continuing problem of press freedom in the world today is generally the
product of the problem of democracy.
It cannot be solved unless the entire crisis of democracy in the whole society
is solved. Only the Third Universal Theory can solve the intricate problem of
democracy.
According to this theory, the democratic system is a cohesive structure whose
foundations are firmly laid on basic popular congresses, people's committees
and professional associations. All these come together in the General People's
Congress. Absolutely, there is no other conception for a genuine democratic
society.
Finally, the era of the masses, which approaches us at a rapid pace following
the era of the republics, inflames the feelings and dazzles the eyes. As much
as this era gladly announces the real freedom of the masses and their happy
emancipation from the shackles of instruments of governing so much it warns
of the approach of an age of anarchy and demagogy if the new democracy, which
is the authority of the people, does not relapse and the authority of the individual,
class, tribe, sect or party again comes to pre-dominate.
Theoretically, this is the genuine democracy. But realistically, the strong
always rule, i.e., the stronger part in the society is the one that rules.
Part One of The Green Book, "The Solution of the Problem of Democracy - The Authority of the People" was written in 1975 by Muammar al-Qadhafi. This translation was published by the Public Establishment for Publishing, Advertising and Distribution in Tripoli, Libya.