{"id":425,"date":"2006-02-18T03:03:47","date_gmt":"2006-02-18T03:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=425"},"modified":"2018-08-23T19:29:45","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T23:29:45","slug":"friday-february-18-2006-a-new-international-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=425","title":{"rendered":"Friday, February 18, 2006 \u2014 A New International Body"},"content":{"rendered":"

I pro\u00adpose that Cana\u00adda ini\u00adti\u00adate the for\u00adma\u00adtion of a new inter\u00adna\u00adtion\u00adal body. Mem\u00adber\u00adship would be defined by the fol\u00adlow\u00ading fac\u00adtors: 1) a pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion of less than thir\u00adty-five mil\u00adlion, 2) a per capi\u00adta GNI<\/span> (Gross Nation\u00adal Income) over US<\/span>$20,000, and 3) a record of ful\u00adly func\u00adtion\u00ading democ\u00adra\u00adcy for a min\u00adi\u00admum of fifty years. Switzer\u00adland, which qual\u00adi\u00adfies, would be omit\u00adted by dint of its spe\u00adcial neu\u00adtral\u00adi\u00adty and bank\u00ading inter\u00adests. The fol\u00adlow\u00ading coun\u00adtries would be invit\u00aded: Aus\u00adtria, Aus\u00adtralia, Bel\u00adgium, Den\u00admark, Fin\u00adland, Ice\u00adland, Ire\u00adland, Lux\u00adem\u00adbourg, the Nether\u00adlands, New Zealand, Nor\u00adway, and Swe\u00adden. In addi\u00adtion, I would sug\u00adgest that Green\u00adland and the Faroe Islands, both enti\u00adties semi-autonomous from Den\u00admark, be invit\u00aded to par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpate as full mem\u00adbers. Cana\u00adda has a spe\u00adcial inter\u00adest in close co-oper\u00ada\u00adtion with Greenland.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is good rea\u00adson to bring these nations togeth\u00ader under a roof. They are all eco\u00adnom\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly advanced coun\u00adtries, with long demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic expe\u00adri\u00adence, which must con\u00adstant\u00adly move in the shad\u00adow of the big pow\u00aders. They have a com\u00adbined pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion of more than 120,000,000. If they become accus\u00adtomed to mutu\u00adal con\u00adsul\u00adta\u00adtion and com\u00adbined action, they can, togeth\u00ader, have a clout equiv\u00ada\u00adlent to the \u201cbig boys\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Democ\u00adra\u00adcies with a pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion under 35,000,000 oper\u00adate quite dif\u00adfer\u00adent\u00adly from larg\u00ader democ\u00adra\u00adcies, despite the for\u00admal resem\u00adblance in struc\u00adture. Our issues and prob\u00adlems are much clos\u00ader to those of the Nether\u00adlands or Aus\u00adtralia than they are to Britain or the Unit\u00aded States. Coun\u00adtries like the Unit\u00aded States, Great Britain, France and Ger\u00admany are shaped by long his\u00adto\u00adries of wield\u00ading pow\u00ader on a large scale. For\u00admal democ\u00adra\u00adcy, in such places, rides like a float\u00ading cork on an ocean of invis\u00adi\u00adble influ\u00adences, tan\u00adgled pow\u00ader struc\u00adtures and murky social forces. Reform and inno\u00adva\u00adtion in such coun\u00adtries is far more dif\u00adfi\u00adcult than in democ\u00adra\u00adcies that work on a man\u00adage\u00adable scale. That is why a coun\u00adtry like the Unit\u00aded States may have prob\u00adlems that every\u00adone rec\u00adog\u00adnizes, the solu\u00adtions for which are gen\u00ader\u00adal\u00adly agreed upon, and yet make lit\u00adtle progress solv\u00ading them over decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

A democ\u00adra\u00adcy as small as Ice\u00adland, with a pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion small\u00ader than that of Mis\u00adsis\u00adsauga (a sub\u00adurb of Toron\u00adto), is per\u00adfect\u00adly capa\u00adble of pro\u00advid\u00ading its cit\u00adi\u00adzens with all the col\u00adlec\u00adtive ser\u00advices they need. Per\u00adhaps it can\u00adnot rus\u00adtle up a space pro\u00adgram or deploy nuclear-pow\u00adered air\u00adcraft car\u00adri\u00aders, but it can edu\u00adcate its chil\u00addren, care for its aged, heal its sick and admin\u00adis\u00adter jus\u00adtice with greater effi\u00adcien\u00adcy than a super\u00adpow\u00ader. Small democ\u00adra\u00adcies have acces\u00adsi\u00adble politi\u00adcians, and effi\u00adcient inter\u00adnal com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtions. Issues can be under\u00adstood and debat\u00aded by the pub\u00adlic. They have the ver\u00adsa\u00adtil\u00adi\u00adty to exper\u00adi\u00adment\u2026 and to reverse the course of exper\u00adi\u00adments if they turn out wrong. Rep\u00adre\u00adsen\u00adta\u00adtive democ\u00adra\u00adcy works very well for a coun\u00adtry up to a pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion of six or sev\u00aden mil\u00adlion. After that, dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adties begin to appear. Bureau\u00adcra\u00adcies become more impen\u00ade\u00adtra\u00adble and arbi\u00adtrary, indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adals have greater dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adty deal\u00ading with the State, the left hand starts to lose track of what the right hand is doing. At thir\u00adty-five mil\u00adlion, these inef\u00adfi\u00adcien\u00adcies start to take a seri\u00adous toll. Cana\u00adda is at the upper lim\u00adit of the advan\u00adtages of scale in a rep\u00adre\u00adsen\u00adta\u00adtive democ\u00adra\u00adcy. It\u2019s not sur\u00adpris\u00ading that Nor\u00adway, a coun\u00adtry of five mil\u00adlion, has dis\u00adplaced us in one well-known \u201cbest place to live\u201d list.<\/span><\/p>\n

No mat\u00adter how much Cana\u00addi\u00adans would like to strut in the coun\u00adcils of the mighty, we will nev\u00ader be one of them. We have the choice of being ignored, or of toad\u00ady\u00ading to one of the big pow\u00aders. If we pur\u00adsue our cur\u00adrent habits, we will always be chas\u00ading after them, like a ten year old tag\u00adging along with his old\u00ader brother\u2019s gang. Our true inter\u00adests lie with the small democ\u00adra\u00adcies. It is there that we should be cul\u00adti\u00advat\u00ading our influ\u00adence and build\u00ading mutu\u00adal sup\u00adport. The peo\u00adple who admin\u00adis\u00adter Nor\u00adway, Fin\u00adland, New Zealand, and the Nether\u00adlands do many things extreme\u00adly well. They deserve our atten\u00adtion, and, often, imi\u00adta\u00adtion. For our part, we have some tricks we can teach them. Instead, we fix our eyes hyp\u00adnot\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly on the big pow\u00aders, and we ignore our peers. Or worse. We recent\u00adly found our\u00adselves in a spite\u00adful and idi\u00adot\u00adic dis\u00adpute with Den\u00admark, a coun\u00adtry with which we have crit\u00adi\u00adcal com\u00admon inter\u00adests and should be seek\u00ading harmony.<\/span><\/p>\n

An offi\u00adcial body would bring the com\u00admon inter\u00adests of small advanced democ\u00adra\u00adcies into focus. These are fun\u00adda\u00admen\u00adtal\u00adly dif\u00adfer\u00adent from our inter\u00adests in small poor coun\u00adtries, or in big\u00adger poor coun\u00adtries, or in big\u00adger rich coun\u00adtries, or in non-demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic coun\u00adtries, or in the inex\u00adpe\u00adri\u00adenced new democ\u00adra\u00adcies. Each of these groups has its own prop\u00ader approach. But there is a par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar group in which we should be con\u00adcen\u00adtrat\u00ading our atten\u00adtion, and I think my pro\u00adpos\u00adal iden\u00adti\u00adfies it.<\/span><\/p>\n

How\u00adev\u00ader, it would not do if such an asso\u00adci\u00ada\u00adtion became anoth\u00ader excuse for pompous cer\u00ade\u00admo\u00adny, caviar ban\u00adquets and jun\u00adkets. It should exem\u00adpli\u00adfy, in its oper\u00ada\u00adtion, the strengths of small-scale democ\u00adra\u00adcy. Mod\u00adern telecom\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtions and infor\u00adma\u00adtion tech\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgy should be employed to their fullest. We should not tol\u00ader\u00adate grotesque par\u00ado\u00addies of G\u20117 sum\u00admits and the squan\u00adder\u00ading and cor\u00adrup\u00adtion of the Unit\u00aded Nations.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I pro\u00adpose that Cana\u00adda ini\u00adti\u00adate the for\u00adma\u00adtion of a new inter\u00adna\u00adtion\u00adal body. Mem\u00adber\u00adship would be defined by the fol\u00adlow\u00ading fac\u00adtors: 1) a pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion of less than thir\u00ad\u00adty-five mil\u00adlion, 2) a per capi\u00adta GNI<\/span> (Gross Nation\u00adal Income) over US<\/span>$20,000, and 3) \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-au-blog-2006"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=425"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9753,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions\/9753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}