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| Pirate Party International |
Pirates (Piratenpartei) without policy
Editing by Carolyn Bennett
Davd Budde’s “Swarm intelligence, subterranean politics”
“It is remarkable how a party rose to success which has yet
to formulate a comprehensive party platform that addresses all traditional
policy fields,” Budde writes.
“The Pirate Party does not stand for certain
policies but for a new way of doing politics that challenges established
notions of parliamentary democracy [and] there is evidence to argue that what
has made the Pirate Party so attractive to many voters was exactly the lack of
substance in terms of policy proposals.”
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| Pirate Party Sweden |
New ethos rises from underground
Subterranean politics refer to a wide spectrum of activities
that fall outside the established realms of formal (party) politics,
associations and organized social movements and what makes the Pirate Party “an
interesting example of subterranean politics,” Budde says, is ─
[t]he way this “party connects with notions of
─ protesting politics as usual and experimenting with new modes of
democratic decision-making.
“The electoral successes of the Pirate Party show how
suddenly subterranean politics can bubble up and alter the fabric of
established formal politics, introducing new modes of decision-making such as
‘Liquid Feedback’ – and actually bringing disenchanted voters back into the
political process.”
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| Pirate Party Germany |
Liquid Feedback
The Pirate Party,” Budde reports, “stands for transparent
and fluid decision-making processes in which the base gets to discuss and
decide on issues always and at any time in-between elections.”
Using an Internet tool called “‘Liquid Feedback,’” users weigh
in then vote on how the State Parliament party group votes on issues.
“… Studies have shown that up to 60 percent of Pirate Party
voters come from the group of voters who did not vote in previous elections
because they did not feel drawn to any party.”
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| Pirate Party USA |
Democracy reinventing
Budde concludes that “it is possible the Pirate Party could
turn out to be a temporary fad of disenchanted voters who want to protest the
status quo”; but for the long term, “are not committed to the party and its
organization.” Nevertheless it shows how subterranean politics are indeed
‘bubbling up’ and testing the spheres of established politics.”
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| Pirate Party Canada |
What is characteristic of subterranean politics in each
country is the way in which they connect with existing cultural norms and
political values on the one hand; and reaffirm or reconfigure them through new
modes of political participation on the other. A variety of examples of subterranean
politics suggest “a desire to talk about democracy anew and experiment with new
modes of decision-making.”
Clearly, in contemporary times, there are urgent governance challenges, among them economic and fiscal crises, which demand sound policies, Budde says, [but] “it
may be time to bring democracy back into the equation.”
Sources and notes
“All politics: swarm intelligence and subterranean politics
in Germany” (David Budde), October 9, 2012, http://www.opendemocracy.net/david-budde/all-politics-swarm-intelligence-and-subterranean-politics-in-germany
A Pirate Party was first founded in
Sweden in 2006 to organize interests around the issues of freedom of the Internet
and copyright on behalf of online users whose practices of file sharing were
under increasing attack.
Similar parties championing civil
liberties in the Internet age have formed worldwide.
“Subterranean politics refer to a wide spectrum of
activities that are not captured as political by scholars so far because they
fall outside the established realms of formal (party) politics, associations
and organized social movements. The twenty-first century is already rich in
examples of people participating outside parties, NGOs, or other organizations.”
─ Budde
David Budde
Research Associate to the Dean at the Hertie School of
Governance in Berlin, David Budde, MA, contributed recently to a research
project on subterranean politics in Germany. His research interests are
theories and the practice of political representation, new modes of governance
and Middle East politics. He studied at Freie Universität in Berlin and Tel
Aviv University.
English language: Pirate Party
Arabic: حزب القراصنة
Czech: Pirátská strana
Danish: Pirate party
Dutch: Piratenpartij
French: fête pirate
German: Piratenpartei
Greek: πειρατικό κόμμα
Haitian Creole: pati bato
Hausa: Pirate jam'iyya
Irish: Pirate páirtí
Italian: Partito Pirata
Norwegian: Piratpartiet
Russian: пиратская сторона
Swahilil: Pirate chama
Swedish: pirat partiet
Welsh: Môr-ladron parti
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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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