[Dr Caleb]

Any system of electoral reform must also address the 'entitlement' that many government officials and civil servants have been allowed to cultivate.<br /> <br /> Some Governemtn Minister, or Deputy Minister (unelected) is not better than me, for I am the citizen that allows them their authority.

[Diogenes]

Here! Here!

[Diogenes]

<br /> It may not be necessary to reinvent the wheel <br /> http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=566 <br /> <br /> <br /> Winter 2003 Issue: What Would Democracy Look Like?<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Women, Citizenship, and the End of Poverty<br /> by Hilkka Pietila <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> One day in the early 1990s a friend of mine—a long-term servant of the United Nations—bluntly remarked, “It is better, Hilkka, that you keep quiet about the Nordic welfare society. It is such a luxury of the rich, the poor countries cannot even dream about it.”<br /> <br /> This remark annoyed me immensely. Intuitively I felt that it was not true, but I did not have a good answer. So I began to study the history of emerging wealth in Finland and the other Nordic countries. These countries are located far to the North in a harsh climate where nature does not permit more than one harvest a year. Furthermore, the Nordic countries never had colonies, from which most of the world’s other rich countries have extracted wealth for centuries. Yet, according to the United Nations, the Nordics are among the world’s wealthiest and most equal and democratic countries.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> photo by Kerttu Barnett <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Finland has gone from being a poor country early in the 20th century to ranking tenth in the world in life expectancy, education, and income.<br /> The common belief is that a country must first become rich, and then it can provide welfare for its people. The history of the Nordic societies tells a different story; here, wealth has been built by building welfare for people. <br /> This success was built on a notion of welfare entirely different from welfare as understood in the United States. In the US “being on welfare” is humiliating, and welfare benefits often depend on the recipient’s relationship to something or someone else. What is radically different about the Finnish system is that here welfare benefits and services are rights that everyone living permanently in the country is individually entitled to. Finnish people have economic, social, and political citizenship. <br /> For women, it has proved particularly important that social benefits and services belong to everyone without distinction as to sex, marital status, employment, race, or nationality. Thus Finnish women are entitled to enjoy their social entitlements whether or not they are married or employed. <br /> This social welfare system is based on a long heritage of democracy, social justice, and equality, and a sense of collective responsibility for the well-being of the people. The workers’ movement has been strong in the Nordic countries since the beginning of the 20th century. But ever since 1906, when Finland became the first country in the world to grant women the vote and full political rights, the most important force in building the welfare system has been Finnish women. <br /> In 1899, when the majority of Finns were living in poverty, a group of women established the Martha Organization to advance the country’s economic and cultural life. The strategy was to mobilize educated women—often teachers and home economists—who volunteered to visit women in their rural homes and teach them about childcare, cooking, housekeeping, handicrafts, raising animals, growing vegetables and fruits, using berries, mushrooms, and wildlife from the forests, and fish from the thousands of lakes. <br /> <br /> <br />