This website was created and is maintained by the Victoria Collective for a Particpatory Society.

Why do we need a Participatory Society?

	First, our current system is horrific. It perpetuates class division, war, poverty, racism, and environmental destruction. Capitalism allows those who own productive property and investors massive profits for doing no work. Those who work for the owners work to enrich the owners, and must fight for their pay. Workers must constantly fight for better wages, and are paid proportional to their bargaining power. This creates a constant class war. The pursuit of profits for the enrichment of a select few is often in conflict with other values. If it is not profitable to make products that do not hurt the environment, then there is no incentive to make such products. If owners traditionally do not pay women or people of color the same as other employees, capitalism provides no reason to correct this imbalance, in fact capitalism has a reason to perpetuate it. If it is not profitable to employ everyone, then there will be people unemployed, and thus poverty. In short our system is fundamentally flawed.
Communism is no better than capitalism.		Capitalism enriches and empowers a few at the expense of the rest.

The traditional alternative to capitalism, communism, is no better. Communism gets rid of owners of productive property. However, there is a class of people that actually get things done in a capitalist society on behalf of the owners, called the coordinator class. This class includes intellectuals, engineers, doctors, lawyers, and corporate executives. They monopolize empowering work and make important decisions. In a communist society, this class becomes the new ruling class, leading to the many familiar problems of communism. Some might say the proper name for communism is coordinatorism.

Also, our current system of representative democracy does not encourage participation. Participation is a good in itself. It is a human right (and need) to manage our own affairs. Representative democracy caters to the rich and powerful, whom influence representatives for their own ends. Elected representatives often go back on their word once elected. Voting once every four years is not real democracy at all compared to a true, participatory democracy.

Further, measures that curb capitalism into something more humane must be fought for. Once these things (socialized medicine, freedom of speech, public owned infrastructure, the right to unionize, etc.) are won, the fight is not over. People must continually fight to maintain what they win. Capitalism is a never ending battle.

Even in a heavily socialized capitalist society with 100% employment, free health coverage, free university, etc., there are still problems. First, all these gains must be fought for to be maintained, unions must still exist and remain strong. Second, work is still hierachical, rote, undemocratic, and unempowering for the majority of workers. Participation in political life, a fundamental human need, is not welcome. There ae still poor people. Wealth is unevenly distributed.

A Participatory Society is a permanent solution to these problems. It would also foster things that our current system cannot. While our current system fosters alienation, stupidity, classism, and antisocial behavior, a participatory society would foster the opposite. A participatory society fosters solidarity, equity, one class, and self management. While we are encouraged today to step on people to get ahead and watch out for ourselves, a participatory society would encourage us to work together for the common good.

Not the best system.