in Esperanto
Chapter 4: SKETCH OF COMMUNIST SOCIETY -- ADMINISTRATION
4. The bureaucracy is truly overthrown.
4.1. Integration of legislative and administrative functions
Modern states have come to have a huge bureaucracy regardless of their system. As a result, the parliamentary system, which is tacitly equated with democracy, has been undermined by the bureaucracy that manages the backstage of parliamentary deliberations, and has has made democracy a superficial signboard.
Therefore, the slogan of overthrowing the bureaucracy tends to end up as an empty phrase because, under the idea of "separation of powers," administration is considered separately from legislation.
Administration is not simply a function of power that technically enforces the laws enacted by the legislature, but the comprehensive power function that exactly “does politics.” It can even include the power to draft legislation. For this reason, together with the lack of legislative capacity of the legislative branch, the administrative bureaucrats became independent, and through the executive branch's right to submit bills, the bureaucrats effectively usurped the legislative power. Thus, lawmakers become rubber stampers.*
*The U.S. parliamentary system, which does not allow the executive branch to submit bills and all bills are enacted by members of parliament, has characters similar to the Commons' Convention system. On the other hand, the US legislative process is dominated by pressure groups representing industry interests and lobbyists acting as their agents. It can be said that the control of the legislative process by interest groups is also a form of the hollowing out of democracy through a route other than the bureaucracy.
In order to overcome such a situation, greatly strengthening the political initiative of the head of the executive branch would be the pinnacle of "boss politics," which is the path that leads to executive dictatorship and eventually to fascism.
Instead, the path to "true democracy" is to cut into the classical structure of the separation of powers and integrate the legislative and administrative functions under the Commons' Convention.
However, there are many similarities between the Commons' Convention and the parliament in terms of their outward structure. For example, the Commons' Convention, like many parliaments, has standing committees for each policy area and special committees to deal with specific issues.
The difference from the general parliamentary systems is that there is no government that makes policies and submits bills, so all the proposals are initiated by the delegates themselves, and the standing committees or special committees are responsible for everything from policy planning to bill drafting.
The chair of each committee plays a kind of ministerial role, and the political council, a collegial body composed of all chairs of committees and the general chair and vice general chair of the Commons' Convention, constitutes the executive bureau of the Commons' Convention.
This political council is similar to the Cabinet in the current parliamentary system, but it is not just an administrative body, but a central body responsible for coordinating the agenda of the Commons' Convention. However, the political council does not have a head position equivalent to that of the prime minister, and the general chair of the Commons' Convention presides over the affairs of the council.
The basic structure of the Commons' Convention as described above is common throughout the levels within a zone. As long as the legislative and administrative functions are integrated under the Commons' Convention, the Convention is more than just a legislative body and it must be a permanent non-sessional institution.
Also, in light of the large number of duties of the Commons' Convention, the number of delegates must be much larger than the number of representatives of the current parliament. In this respect, the abolition of the money economy eliminates the necessity of putting the cart before the horse to reduce the fixed number due to financial difficulties, because delegates to the Commons' Convention are completely unpaid at all the levels.
4.2. Statutes and policy guidelines
The legislative function of the Commons' Convention was not much different from that of the present parliament. As mentioned earlier, the respective local Commons' Conventions are also capable of enacting proper laws concerning matters under their authority.
By the way, since modern states generally advocate rule of law, they have a strong urge to enforce all policies by laws, especially statutes. The very statute is the greatest weapon of the bureaucrats familiar with its formal legislative arts. If any policy has to be legislated in the end, it will fall into the realm of bureaucracy.
However, it is a big assumption that all policies must be legislated. In fact, there are not so many areas that should be legislated, except for areas such as the judiciary, where the exercise of power must be properly regulated. In particular, in fields related to the people's livelihood, formal legislation can actually lead to a loss of flexibility in policy development.
Therefore, if legislation is not necessary or is not appropriate, policy guidelines will be used instead of statutes. A policy guideline is a type of normative document that defines rules for the execution of certain policies. Although these guidelines are not as binding as statutes, they are more than mere plans and have a normative nature that constitutes the duty of loyalty to civil servants in charge.
However, regardless of whether it is based on statutes or policy guidelines, there is no change in the fact that the Commons' Convention must work out its own from the first stage. For this reason the legislative procedure of the Convention will be more elaborate than that of the parliament. Examples are shown below.
First of all, everything starts with a proposal by the delegates (at least three delegates), but the proposal is always made to the committee to which the delegates who made the proposal belong. When the proposal is received, the committee first conducts preliminary deliberations (not open to the public) to determine whether the content of the proposal should be made into a statute or guideline in the first place, and if so, which one is appropriate.
If a resolution is obtained that it should be made into a statute or a guideline, a legislative research panel will be established that includes the proposer, other delegates, and outside experts. The panel will make written inquiries to a wide range of external experts, and prepare a research report while examining the contents. This report will be open to the public and will be deliberated by the subcommittee in charge to decide whether or not to adopt it.
If it is passed, a bill or a draft guideline will be created based on the report. In the case of a bill, the legislative support bureau of the Commons' Convention will scrutinize the correctness of the formal wording and expressions, and consistency with other laws and regulations. In the case of a draft guideline as well, it will be submitted to the committee for deliberation after being carefully examined by the legislative support bureau regarding its consistency with the laws.
A policy guideline will be effective if it is passed by a committee. This point is the biggest difference from the law. In the case of a bill, after it has been passed by the committee, the full text is distributed to all delegates in advance, and it is sent to the plenary session after being circulated.
Today, the plenary session of the parliaments, which adopts the committee-centered principle, has become almost a ritual, but the plenary session of the Commons' Conventionis important as a place for final general deliberations. There, questions and answers are exchanged with the delegates who made the proposal, and remand to the committee or amendment is also allowed in addition to approval or rejection.
In the case of remand, the opinions expressed in the question and answer session will be brought back to the committee, and a vote will be taken on whether to amend the bill or continue deliberations. If an amendment is to be made, the legislative research panel will be re-established and the above procedure will be repeated.
4.3. Initiatives
The above is an overview of the basic legislative procedure of the Commons' Convention, but in a communist society that upholds commons' sovereignty, legislative proposals by citizens (initiatives) are also encouraged. In this regard, at the level of local autonomy, systems such as direct initiative and plebiscite have already been developed, and communism will push this direction even further.
On the other hand, at the zone level, it is difficult to institutionalize direct initiative because it deals with major policies that affect the interests of the whole popilation, and the the public petition system (indirect initiative) is to be strengthened. A petition to the bourgeois state is only an appeal to the ruling government, but a public petition under the system of the Commons' Convention is a powerful means of public proposition.
In such cases, formal petitions must be signed with a specified number of signatures to prove their validity. After that, lawfully petitioned matters are accepted by the petition committee, one of the standing committees of the Commons' Convention, and the committee votes on whether or not the matter should be referred to the relevant committee. If it is decided to referred, the relevant committee conducts preliminary deliberations on whether it should be made into a statute or a guideline. Subsequent proceedings will follow the legislative proceedings described above, but in this case the legislative research panel will consist primarily of the chair of the relevant committee.
The above public petition system should not be confused with lobbying activities. The lobbying activities that flourish under the parliamentary system are exactly befitting of the bourgeois state, which is the community of interests of the bourgeois class, and are nothing less than a campaign to expand the rights of those who have interests to enact laws that are advantageous to them.
Under the system of the the Commons' Convention, lobbying activities by interested parties to delegates are prohibited by law. Anyone wishing to enact legislation must, and that is the only route, choose the aforementioned public petition or direct initiative method.
4.4. Dismantling and conversion of bureaucracy
Thus, under the Commons' Convention system, the strongholds of the bureaucracy such as central ministries and agencies, prefectural government offices, and municipal government offices would all be dismantled. However, judging from the structure of the Commons' Convention as described above, we should be able to convince ourselves that it is possible to manage society without a bureaucracy.
All former bureaucratic institutions will basically be converted into policy research institutions or simple administrative service agencies.
A policy research organization is a think tank under the direct control of the Commons' Convention established for each policy area (for example, the Environmental Policy Research Institute, the Transport Policy Research Institute, etc.). They are responsible for providing necessary information and statistics in response to requests from delegates and committees for policy planning and legislation of the Convention.
The core staff of these think tanks is a kind of researcher, and unlike bureaucrats, they do not get involved in drafting bills, nor do they comment on the propriety of policies. Such think tanks are similarly set up in the respective local Conventions.
