Бесплатный фрагмент - Principles of Scientific Democracy

To my mother, Maria Generalova

Acknowledgements

This work was planned a long time ago but became possible only recently thanks to support and help from these great awesome people: my family, close friends, colleagues and teachers. First of all, I want to express never-ending gratitude to my mother who left this world a few months ago. She is the very person who I dedicate this work to. She was the best mother in the world. She always understood and supported me, and shared my scientific and political views. Also, the English version of the work would probably never appear if it weren’t for my precious daughter Veronique. One day she convinced me that I could make it. So, I would love to thank her very much for the inspiration she has given me since the day she was born.

I also want to express special thanks to my teachers, Doctor of Economics, Professor A.N. Popov and Doctor of Economics, Professor G.N. Pryahin who not only supported my bold scientific idea on synthesis of biology and economics but also significantly enriched and systematized my economic knowledge. I also want to express my appreciation to my friends, colleagues and opinion allies, Doctor of Geography N.S. Rasskazova, Doctor of Economics Y.R. Lutfullin, Candidate of Biological Sciences I.V. Mashkova and many others who influenced formation of my scientific views not only in economics but also in biology, geography, ecology, information technology, etc.

I also must mention the priceless contribution of Kasey Cassells who represents the Wise Words Editorial online agency (http://www.wisewordseditorial.com/). She did a great job of proofreading the book, quickly and with excellent quality.

Glossary

The people (nation) — the main social institution of a society, the collective founder and owner of a sovereign state.

A sovereign state — a national scale enterprise, organization, juridical entity that is founded, owned and governed by the people.

Popular sovereignty — the natural right of the people to found a sovereign state and govern it for their own good; also — supremacy of the people over their own sovereign state.

Popular sovereignty institute — a historically developed social institution in which the people’s power over their own sovereign state is expressed.

Scientific democracy — a social system in which the people scientifically govern their own sovereign state.

National Self-governance System (NSS) — the order of nationwide governance, which is established by law, and organized at all levels of the state structure in accordance with the rules of management science.

Preface

To survive, a living organism needs air, sunlight, water, food etc. A human society has needs too. A society’s needs are market demands. When a living organism feels a need, it becomes motivated to perform specific goal behavior to satisfy the need. The same thing takes place in a society. When a society ‘feels’ a market demand, its economic ‘brain’ sets business goals and commands the executive ‘body’ to produce specific goods and services to supply the market until the demand is completely satisfied.

This amazing parallel is not an accident. There are enough parallels between biological and social forms of organized matter to make us clearly see that it is a system. My first significant work, published more than 10 years ago and currently available only in Russian language, was devoted to developing the bioeconomic parallelism concept and creating the bioeconomic parallels system (see Igor Flor, Bionomics. Analysis Based on Bioeconomic Analogies, 2005).

The aim of this current work is to apply the bioeconomic parallels system analysis, i.e. bionomics, to provide a universal solution to one of the key issues of modern society — ineffectiveness of the government system. This problem is common to all nations of the world. It causes corruption, legal abuse, systemic crisis, violence and many other forms of social degradation. It has a destructive effect on both domestic and foreign affairs of the nations and derails the global process of building an open, safe and sustainable world.

Today, thanks to the bionomics approach, we can draw and carefully study a parallel between a biological adequate action behavior model and a social one. And, of course, we should take into consideration that a social adequate behavior model falls into two similar parts — private and public.

The most popular application method of bionomics is called biomimicry. The leaders of the Biomimicry Institute define it as “an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies” (https://biomimicry.org).

The result of this work is a new concept of a government system, which makes a society more like a living organism — healthier, more effective and more sustainable. This systematic approach makes it possible to find the direct correlation between science and democracy. That’s why I call it the scientific democracy theory (SDT).

Originally, the work was planned as a doctoral dissertation and was written in Russian, which is my native language. So, most of the facts you will find in this work, especially in the first chapter, are examples from Russian society. However, I have no doubt all of you will be able to easily find parallels in your own native country’s society.

I hope you enjoy this text and find it useful!

PART 1
SOCIETY’S VIABILITY MEASURMENT

CHAPTER 1. Relevance

Corruption is a real disaster in Russia, a serious chronic disease. Criminal fraud involving government property and assets stopped being something surprising or extraordinary long time ago; it is now deeply rooted in society and has become the norm. According to the Russian National Anticorruption Committee, the volume of the corruption market amounted to approximately $300 billion in 2014 alone (according to the Global Financial Integrity it is about $1 trillion), that is about 30–50% of GDP. Imagine for a moment the condition and feelings of a person whose body is 50% corrupted with a cruel disease like cancer. Today our government represents the same burden for a healthy economy. It is a real catastrophe! And that’s without speaking about the burden of taxation and other official exactions, salaries and privileges of bureaucrats. No market economy is able to compensate such a large amount of unreasonable expenses as these. It’s not surprising that the Russian economic growth rate has been firmly dropping down since 2010. According to the World Bank, in 2010 GDP growth rate in Russia was 4.5%, in 2014 it was 0.5%, and in 2015 it was minus 3.7%. As we can see, during this period we have nearly vertical falling. Through all the year of 2016 the Russian Minister of Economic Development promised the people that the recession was going to stop in any moment. But it didn’t stop and even more: at the end of the year the Minister was arrested and charged with racketeering and taking a $2 million bribe. The situation with the Minister speaks louder than any words about the fact that corruption and criminality have become a basis for the Russian government. It’s absolutely impossible for healthy economy to grow in environment like that. There may only be some single spurts in growth which have no any effect on the common recession trend.

According to the Russian Central Bank, capital outflow from Russia in 2014 amounted to $151.5 billion, which is 2.5 times bigger than that of the year before. Such a huge outflow says not so much about a degradation of our economy as about absence of any healthy economy at all. The government is trying to survive and simulate stability only thanks to the possibility of selling natural resources. It’s understandable that Russian society will not stand such a barbaric policy as this for a sustained time. What should we do?

The corruption symptom makes it clear that social and economic problems are engendered by the government’s inefficiency. It means the source of the problem lies exactly in the system of public control over the government. We must reveal that systemic defect and show that it contradicts with the Constitution, the rule of law and management science. The right diagnosis is a ticket to successful treatment of any illness.

This research work throws light on the most important disadvantage in the national governance system that prevents the nation from peaceful development, endangering its security and sovereignty. The paper presents a fundamentally new approach to solving the government’s inefficiency problem and consequently reducing corruption, overcoming economic recession, strengthening public safety, and creating ground for sustainable development and prosperity of the whole nation in a long-term perspective.

CHAPTER 2.
Similarity between biological and social forms of organized matter

There is a similarity between biological and social forms of organized matter. This scientific theory was invented as long ago as in the classical times. According to Plato, “the best ordered commonwealth is one whose structural organization resembled most nearly to an individual” (The Republic, 380 BC). Aristotle, Plutarch, Cicero and many others held similar views. In modern science, the theory is known as ‘organic theory’. It influenced the views of many great scientists and statesmen. Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States: “Government is not a machine, but a living thing. It falls, not under the theory of the universe, but under the theory of organic life. It is accountable to Darwin, not to Newton” (Constitutional Government of the United States, 1908). Alfred Marshall, a great English economist: “The Mecca of the economist lies in economic biology rather than in economic dynamics” (Principles of Economics, 1890). By the beginning of the 21st century, the human race accumulated such a huge body of scientific knowledge that the truth of the organic theory raises no doubts. Many modern scientific disciplines study the laws of nature that are common to biological and social worlds (see Fig. 1). Among them: general systems theory, organizational theory, informatics, cybernetics, energetics, etc.

It’s not that difficult to see likenesses between certain biological and social phenomena. Let’s take for example a feeling we call ‘need’ that is common to all living organisms. Any society has this feeling too. If we compare social needs to biological ones we can easily discover parallels. For example, all living organisms are in need of food and water and so is a society. All living organisms are in need of energy and information and so is a society. The list of these parallels might be infinite. According to the scientific approach all needs of society are concentrated in its economic system and called ‘demands’. The vital necessity to regularly satisfy needs in order to survive and conserve the species brings the issue of security to the forefront. This issue is essential for both social and biological systems. After all, the lives of both depend on security, which falls into different types such as economic security, information security, environmental security, energy security, food supply security and others. Guarantee of security is guarantee of success in the struggle for life. The measure of the maximum success rate of any system is its ‘viability’. “Viability is the ability of a thing (a living organism, an artificial system, an idea, etc.) to maintain itself or recover its potentialities” (Source).

It equally relates to any social system. One more excerpt: “A viable system is a system which is able to maintain and keep independent life for an infinitely long time. The distinguishing feature of a viable system is its ability to adapt to constantly changing surroundings” (A.Miliv — Economic Cybernetics, p.317). Viability is a feature that every successful society must have. Without that feature any social system is not able to survive for long, it will relatively quickly reach the phase of depression and ruin. If, say, a family (a social unit) is not viable, it relatively quickly falls apart into the original components (husband and wife divorce). An unviable commercial entity becomes insolvent and faces bankruptcy. In the same way, an unviable state system relatively quickly reaches the phase of crisis and inevitably collapses, often suffering from social disruption. Here are some other important features of living organisms, which any successful society must have: openness, permeability, adaptiveness, ability to organize, ability to handle stress, cooperation, coordination, metabolism, autoregulation, autonomy, learning ability, differentiation, etc.

There are two important additions to the idea of similarity between biological and social forms of organized matter.

Addition 1. Similarity between biological and social forms is not ideal. Due to some natural reasons, which we will talk about a little later, there is a gap in the similarity.

Addition 2. A biological system is much more advanced than a social one, and so it may serve as a good example for improving social systems through mimicry.

Now, let’s talk about these additions in detail. Biological evolution has been going on for as long as about 3.8 billion years, while the evolution of social systems is as young as about 40,000 years, which is 95 thousand times younger than biological evolution! In fact, social evolution is in its infancy phase. Such a huge age gap explains the delay in social form development. If the similarity were ideal then a society would be as full-featured as a living organism. It would have all structures, organs and qualities that make a living organism viable.

The point of social evolution is to gradually reduce the gap in the similarity, and so to gradually approach the ideal. The more society is similar to the biological original, the more viable it is and vice versa. That’s what the reality of the material world is like. Evolution is impossible to stop, so one way or another society will progress. However, natural development may last thousands and even millions of years with relatively small useful changes. Fortunately, people can artificially ‘accelerate’ a social system’s improvement through the process called modernization. But any modernization must be performed with only one aim — to reduce the gap in the similarity between the present state of society and the biological original. Reforms that don’t pursue this aim should be considered futureless and in some cases harmful and even antisocial. Evolution will never accept such changes and will destroy all social structures and organs created during these reforms.

CHAPTER 3.
Essential qualities providing viability

Biological evolution is a shining example of how the universal mechanism of natural selection works. Life exists in different forms that struggle against each other, and the one that always wins in this struggle is life. It changes from less viable to more viable forms, which are more specialized at a particular time in a particular place. Life’s primary objective is to always preserve itself in any species, conditions and circumstances. That’s why all the species are a single whole with a common mission. By participating in the struggle for life they contribute to producing more advanced forms that are perfectly adapted to preserving life and transmitting it to the next generation in the safest way.

Viability is the main criterion for a living system to be ready to succeed in the struggle for life, meaning to be ready to successfully protect life in any circumstances and conditions. It is provided by a full package of important features. In this work we shall consider the two most important of them: property and management.

CHAPTER 4.
Property and management in the biological world

Property in the biological world

If you try to touch a fly as it sits on a wall it will fly away. You will get the same result if you try to touch a sparrow sitting on a branch of a tree. Why does it happen?

The fact is, in the material world life exists in the form of a myriad of separate independent bodies — individuals — and each biological individual has its own master inside. The body is the natural ‘property’ that belongs to him from cradle to grave. By force of biological nature, owners cannot exchange their bodies with each other. It’s also impossible for a trespasser to get into someone else’s body and drive the true owner out of there. So, the biological body is not only natural but also unalienable property. This is how the biological world is designed.

From there, the preservation of the body is a condition of preserving life. If a body gets damaged then its owner will suffer in all cases. Destruction of a body automatically destructs its owner. In such circumstances, each owner needs a guarantee of security. Demand for security systems is always high in the biological world. Natural selection favors those individuals who are better adapted to preserving life in all aspects (organization, behavior etc.). Therefore, natural selection applies pressure towards minimization of risks and maximization of safety. By providing living organisms with specific instincts and reflexes, nature ‘teaches’ them to treat their bodies as the most valuable treasure, preventing any situations leading to any risk or danger to life. Every living soul has a natural possessive instinct for its own body. It feels an instinctive sense of power over its body and produces goal-seeking behavior through managing the body as a tool.

Management in the biological world

Body management effectiveness is the key issue for any living system of any level of organization in the struggle for life. Nature is designed in a way that lets those who can manage their body better than others win in the struggle. For example, all predators prefer to attack wounded, ill or young prey first of all because they cannot move quickly and dexterously or put up worthy physical resistance. Predators often die themselves if they get wounded or ill because they cannot manage their bodies effectively enough to catch and kill prey. A struggle always goes on for the leading position on a certain territory even between strong, healthy adult individuals. There is competition between different species, clans of the same species, and inside of the same clans. Altogether, one way or another, biological evolution pitilessly destroys all inefficient management strategies on all levels of organized living matter. Management techniques and skills are constantly polished up and honed to perfection thanks to competition and natural selection. That’s exactly why we have the ability to see amazingly beautiful and effective management strategies created by nature for 3.5 billion years throughout biological evolution. Of course, people get used to seeing such phenomena as birds flying, fish swimming or animals running and may see nothing amazing in them. But if we consider more deeply the fact that every individual bird, fish or animal is an independent super community of hundreds of billions of individual living micro-organisms whose cooperation results in flying, swimming or running we may become really fascinated. Cells coordinate activities of all their common structures in a way that turns millions of biochemical and psychomotor processes into one final result — flying, swimming or running.

The common efforts result distribution principle is also perfect. For example, if the result of the common efforts is catching and consuming prey, then the prey passes through the stomach into the blood circulatory system, which delivers it to all the cells without exception in equal quantity. If the result of the common efforts is survival after a predator’s attack, then all of the cells again benefit from the survival equally. If however the result of common efforts is not very good and an individual gets wounded, then all its cells share a common suffering and fate as well.

CHAPTER 5.
Property and management in the social world

In the previous chapter, we discussed the most important features providing viability of a biological system. We showed that any living body is a natural and unalienable property that always goes with the owner inside. We also noticed that ability to manage the property effectively (behavior) is not less important in the struggle for life than the property’s shape (form).

By force of similarity between biological and social forms of organized matter (see Part 1., Chapter 3.) the mission of human society is also preservation and transmission of life to the next generations. To perform the mission successfully a society must be viable just like any other living system. In social sciences ‘viability’ is usually called ‘efficiency’ or ‘effectiveness’. So, a society must be effective and efficient. Continuing the analogy, the most important features providing efficiency of a society are property and management.

In the biological world, property (body) is natural and unalienable from its owner. Likewise, in a society which tends to the biological original (see Part 1., Chapter 3., Addition 2.), attitude to property has a direct effect on the society’s effectiveness. The more successfully a society meets the challenge of protecting and respecting its citizens’ property, the more effective the society is and vice versa. In the biological world every living body has the assigned master inside who has power over the body and uses it as a tool to satisfy its needs in the struggle for life. In the social world a master like that is usually called ‘the owner’ and considered to be the primary source of power over whatever he possesses. A property that belongs to an owner is subject to management. The more effectively each independent owner manages its own property and the larger percentage of such effective owners the society has, the more successful the whole society is.

CHAPTER 6.
Key features of the functional structure of society

How can we improve the effectiveness of a society? Just like evolution, which pitilessly destroys all nonviable species and inefficient management strategies, we should aim for every member of our society to have their own property, to be able to effectively manage and protect it. And, just like in the biological world, there must be a minimal amount of inalienable property (land, house, flat etc.) in a society established by law. The larger percentage of citizens –effective owners — a society has, the more effective and successful the whole society is. And it doesn’t matter what form of ownership it is. All forms of ownership must be equally protected and involved in effective management processes without exception.

In a human society, all issues related to property protection are solved under the law, and all issues related to property management are solved under economics. In terms of economics and law a society is divided into two main sectors: private sector (PS) and government (or public) sector (GS). Effectiveness of a whole society is composed of effectiveness of each sector alone, and also depends on effectiveness of their interaction.

The rules of law and management science are common to both sectors. So, to improve effectiveness of a whole society a legitimate owner is required in each sector, to provide protection of their property and create conditions for them to effectively manage their properties.

The private sector’s effectiveness

The private sector is an entity made up of many individual business organizations. The owner in PS is aggregate. It consists of thousands of individual owners who possess thousands of individual properties (households, lands, firms, companies, etc.). All of them are the citizens of the same country, in other words, the people. The larger percentage of effective owners the private sector has, the more effective it is. That’s exactly why it is necessary to increase the national middle class of owners as well as develop the national institution of small and middle business. It’s also essential to provide equal protection of each individual property and create equal conditions for each owner to effectively manage his property because all of them are native parts of the same social individual (the nation).

The government sector’s effectiveness

The government sector is made up of one big organization only. This organization is called ‘a sovereign state’ or ‘a government’. The owner of the government is the people taken as a whole, as one social individual. Unlike a private sector where many individual business organizations make up a national economic aggregate, in a government sector there is only one organization — a government. While in PS many founders officially register many articles of association that create the national aggregate of the legal environment, in GS there is only one founder — the people, and only one ‘article of association’ — the Constitution. While in PS many owners manage many business organizations that form the national aggregate of the managing process, in GS there is only one national governing process where the people taken as a whole (the only legitimate founder and the owner of the state) are the supreme ruler and the government organization is subject to the people’s management. It’s not without reason in the government’s articles of association (Constitution) they use the concept of ‘the people’ (‘narod’ in Russian), which is declared to be “the holder of sovereignty and the only source of authority” (from the Russian Constitution). Any kind of power, whether in a living system or in a private company or in a government, is always exercised through ruling only (cybernetics). If a bird (or any other biological individual) has real power over its body it must be able to manage it for its (the bird’s) own good. We can say the same about the owner of a house, a car or a company. A true owner always has the ability to use his property and manage it with a profit. The same is true for the public sector where the owner is the people (as one person).

From the above it follows that to improve effectiveness of GS it is necessary to involve the people (the owner of the state) into the national governing process. But to do so, the people must be legally provided with all the necessary means (economic and legal base as well as necessary knowledge) of effective control over the government.

CHAPTER 7.
Effectiveness of 
the economic system
taken as a whole