After being created in 2004, the WorkForAll.org think tank web portal is giving birth to a new initiative. Over the years, the insight has gradually emerged that the root cause of the current economic crisis goes very deep. Economic and social issues, like the crisis we have today, are the result of political decisions.

A recent book "Why Nations Fail, the origins of power, prosperity and poverty" by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson* confirm this finding over a period that covers 1000's of years. The issue is that the political crisis itself has even deeper roots. Unemployment, debt and social injustice are the visible results of political decisions that put power and short term wealth before the long term wealth of all at the cost of the common good, notwithstanding all the rethoric slogans that serve as a social smoke screen to justify the decisions. Surprisingly, it can take centuries to reverse such a situation. 

The question is then why a society as a whole tolerates such a situation and why such political systems exist at all. Sooner or later, they are doomed to collapse as we see today. The only consolation we have is that the time-to-collapse is shortening as the world becomes more global thanks to technology. The bad news is that history shows that the gradual path is not so likely. Often a major catastrophe is needed to reset the system back on its feet. 

Hence, the conclusion is that we have a chain of events and consequences. Unemployment is a result not the cause of bad decisions taken by political organisations. These bad decisions have their roots in a political system that no longer works as intended. The root cause has to be found in a loss of moral principles, against which even the Constitution has often shown not to be the last barrier of defense.  In many states, it is even the ultimate instrument that serves to justify the concentration of power in the hands of a self declared elite.

Therefore, we have taken the step towards a new initiative whose communication platform is a new web portal www.democracyforall.eu . Rather that trying to influence the current point decisions (even if that remains a rightful way of acting), we take a step back and analyse the fundamentals:

- What is the essence of a democratic society?

- Is there a better way to formulate a society's constitution?

- Is there a better way to organise a society following such a constitution?

- What does it mean to say "we have a Rule of Law?".

- Are there examples that show that this can work or works better? 

We kindly invite to follow the debate at www.democracyforall.eu  

P.S. 

Voor de Nederlandstaligen, dit debat zal vooral in het Engels gevoerd worden omdat het de grenzen van onze eigen woonstreek overstijgt en ook al is het thema zeer actueel in het nog unitaire België. Reden waarom we ook een lezing over Confederalisme op het agenda geplaatst hebben. We menen dan ook dat Zwitserland, een land dat hier al meermaals aan bod is gekomen, een richting aangeeft waarin het antwoord moet gezocht worden. Zoek even op de termen "Zwitserland, directe democratie, confederalisme" en vindt de artikelen die mee de aanzet geleverd hebben tot dit nieuw initiatief.   

The euro survived 2012 intact, and once again Europe's leaders are declaring victory in the fight to preserve the single currency. In a speech in Portugal Monday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the existential threat to the euro was a thing of the past. If only.

Mario Draghi's offer last summer to buy unlimited quantities of government bonds to keep yields under control has certainly calmed down the bond markets in Spanish and Italian debt. The ECB President has achieved this even without so far having to act on the promise.

But the euro-zone unemployment numbers out this week are a reminder that the euro crisis is not so much over as quiescent. Joblessness in the single-currency bloc hit a record 11.8%. Youth unemployment stands at 24.4% and is above 50% in Spain and Greece.

Public Hearing on Direct Democracy and citizen participation