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Rescue Plan for Planet Earth: Democratic World Government through a Global Referendum

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This is a critically important book. Its message is urgent. Democratic world government is an idea whose time is now. Our species stands at the threshold of global upheaval and possible extinction. A convergence of challenges unique in human history threatens to overwhelm us, and a cooperative worldwide response via a constitutional planetary democracy represents the most effective way to address these issues. First, however, we must choose to create these new systems. Jim Stark of Canada has come up with a novel yet simple approach to help us get there.

This book is a rare integration of vision and pragmatism. Jim Stark advocates a grass roots, internet-based Global Referendum along with paper mail-in ballots. The ballot proposition is simple and direct. One votes "Yes" or "No" for "Do you support the creation of a directly-elected, representative and democratic world government?" Early polls indicate a majority of people around the world and across many different religions and ethnic groups would vote yes if they could. Nation-state regimes, including the United Nations, will also have a choice. They can work together with this movement, or be by-passed. In regions of severe repression, warfare, and socio-political-economic upheaval voting may not be possible. And it is a start. A start toward achieving a dream many have had for centuries.

We have an increasingly integrated local-global economy but a volatile mix of political fragmentation and empire building. Our choices are not to reclaim any one national sovereignty, but what kind of world government shall we have? I vote for a transparent, democratic one. What it looks like and how it shall function we can work that out later. For now, let's get this grass roots global referendum going across Planet Earth. And let's be clear: even if there were no global crisis democratic world government is still desirable as the best way for humanity to govern itself, not a one world empire and not a co-dependent hodge-podge of perpetually warring nation-states and stateless-nations. Jim Stark's book is a brief and amazing guide to what we all can do with relatively little effort to directly implement a majestic vision.

Mr. Stark is rich with quotes advocating democratic world government from famous servants to humanity throughout history. Yes, there are things I quibble with, such as what kind of democratic government could be implemented, that I prefer to have a constitutional convention deliberate upon (followed by another referendum). And his tone is a bit shrill, and that can be a turn-off to many who would otherwise heed this clarion call. His shrillness, however, reflects the urgency of the hour. Most importantly, I feel strongly it would be wise to use the full name "Democratic World Government" for his organization and website URL as so many people fear "world government" as tyranny. And these are all quibbles, for the most important matter is that we the public finally have both a passionate and well-written book easy to read with clear steps for each of us to take.

One can also go directly to[..] to vote or do further research. Now is the time. Have at it.

Great title, chock full of excellent quotes - it is a major contribution toward evolving a vision of how humanity can survive on planet Earth.

I'd like to see a sequel that takes it even further. Direct democracy can also evolve beyond the idea of each person being represented by a simple yea or nay vote. We each have so much more to offer than that. We could develop a more advanced system that avoids the dangers of mob rule or the tyranny of the majority -- collaborative democracy. On Wikipedia everyone in the world has the power to edit any page, yet you don't end up with name calling and the kind of gross misinformation that populates much of the web. Why not? Because there is a open-source self-correcting structure that brings out the highest and best wisdom of each individual and of the masses. Collaborative wiki governance is the next step so that self-selecting teams of people will all be working on the same page together solving the world's problems.

When you despair that governments can never come together to agree to stop war, imagine what might happen if a world government could be elected directly - without the approval of existing national governments! Jim Stark's radical vision of ordinary people all over the world voting for their own representatives without regard for present national borders is quite breathtaking. Read this book and have a pot-luck dinner to talk about it. It's time to start a serious debate and move this proposal ahead.

Rescue Plan for Planet Earth is a triumph. It belongs in a class with Thomas Paine's "Common Sense."

Just as Paine was a commoner who dared to advocate independence from British rule for the United States of America, Stark is a commoner who dares to advocate the creation of a democratic world government through a grassroots initiated global referendum.

The book provides a compelling argument for creating an effective structure for global governance, as well as a detailed description of how to make it happen. Stark affirms the principle of "subsidiarity" which means that "all issues should be resolved by the smallest appropriate political unit." So, national governments will continue to deal with national level issues, on down to municipal governments dealing with local issues. A democratic world government would best be able to deal with issues such as weapons proliferation and disarmament, and global climate change.

Stark qualifies many of his ideas as "proposals," and there are any number of ways some of his proposals could be challenged. For instance, in order to guarantee some measure of transparency and corruption-proofing of the directly elected world parliament, members of this parliament and other top level officials would have "recorded lives." This means that every word uttered and action taken by these individuals during working hours would be recorded and published.

A technical solution to the problem of concentrating power into the hands of a relatively small number of people may or may not work. Other proposals and gaps in the rescue plan will be challenged as well.

That is as it should be. The American Revolution was not completed by the publication of "Common Sense." It wasn't until six month later that the Declaration of Independence was signed, and almost six years after that when the Revolutionary War ended, and six years after that until the Constitution of the United States was written.

What Jim Stark has written is a starting point, advocating a totally nonviolent method, for humanity to take the next step in its social evolution.

Rescue Plan for Planet Earth

This wonderful book got me thinking about the future of humans on this earth. Could we - to paraphrase Buckminster Fuller - become a failed experiment in Universe? Or being the eternal optimist that I am - could we really address global problems such as human rights, ecology, just resources use, and the biggie - war between nation-states and terrorist acts of all kinds. The fear of this new level of political thinking is best described by a friend's statement to me some time ago...

"Remember, the United States government and world government are mutually exclusive. You can't have them both at the same time. If you are working for the latter, you are trying to destroy the former."

The above is not true, in my opinion. There is a principle in politics called subsidiarity - meaning that a political issue needs to be addressed at the lowest political unit relevant to the issue. National governments will not disappear when the democratic world parliament/government starts to appear, no more than state or provincial governments disappeared when national governments were formed, no more than city governments disappeared when state or provincial governments were formed.

A world government is coming, that's for sure. Some say that the United Nations is our current world government. It is not, however. A government that works best in the long run is a democratic government - which derives its sovereignty from, by and for the people. There is nothing remotely democratic about the current United Nations - with it's veto power of the permanent members of the Security Council. Even member states of the General Assembly are appointed - not elected.

The interconnectedness of the world's economic, cultural and spiritual spheres is making a higher political sphere inevitable. We can keep our heads buried under the sand, yet supranational problems will continue. People would, the book fears, do nothing - until there is a world government which is not wanted by the people - one controlled by the military industrial complex. This is the kind of world power that Dwight Eisenhower warned against as he left the office of the US presidency.

What is advocated in Rescue Plan for Planet Earth is the opposite - a "bottom up" world parliament / government, concurrently democratic and transparent, directly responsible to the will of the world's people. This can be accomplished - as outlined in Rescue Plan. The starting point is a political tool called a referendum - a "yes / no" vote - here global in scope. Following on this political tool is a technological tool called the Internet - which is the biggest democratizing force the world has ever known. Basically - we can now get a "read" on what the world wants... The core of Rescue Plan is the global referendum currently taking place at Vote World Parliament dot org.

The current question being asked of the world's adults (over 16 years old) is - "Do you support the creation of a directly-elected, representative and democratic world parliament that is authorized to legislate on global issues?"

Mr. Stark has given us a wonderful roadmap to a more peaceful and just planet earth. If only the people of the world would sit up and take notice that a roadmap exists - prior to being bombarded by the more and more lethal omnicides which ever-more threaten our existence.

I would give this book ten thumbs up - if only I had 10 thumbs...

Ted Stalets