[pp.int.general] Our ideology

[Philip Hunt]

2009/7/29 Eric Priezkalns <eric.priezkalns at pirateparty.org.uk>:
> On 29 Jul 2009, at 19:23, Philip Hunt wrote:
>> 2. in particular, don't be explicitly left-wing or right-wing.
>>
>> 3. it follows from the above that we will be roughly politically
>> centrist.Since we hope to form coalitions with other parties, it's
>> best if we are able to work with them
>
> Is there not another kind of inference we can draw?  We could go down the
> path of wanting to return as much power to individuals as we can.  That
> means decentralization, local decisions made by local people, not imposing
> ideology but listening to real communities and giving them the authority to
> make their own decisions as far as they like, devolution... there are many
> names for this, and many ways of phrasing this, that can be tailored to suit
> each culture.
>
> In some countries a policy of power to the people (as opposed to a
> centralized state) will be painted as right-wing thinking.  In others, as
> left-wing.  That is because, on an intellectual level, there are political
> ideologies all over the right-left spectrum which aim to minimize central
> authority, and emphasize having decision-making as close to individuals as
> far as possible.

I agree. We're pro individual autonomy on the internet, so people who
like our policies on that issue are going to favour localism/autonomy
on other issues. And people who don't like autonomy in general (i.e.
the more authoritarian end of the political spectrum) aren't going to
be voting for us anyway

So what non-computing policies might this analysis lead us to suspect
that our target voters might support (and thus that we might get more
support by having these policies). Here's a few candidates:

1. remove regulations and form-filling for small businesses. Will
appeal mainly to those on the political right.

2. for people on benefits, propose that they can earn up to £50 a week
running a microbusiness (a small informal business that doesn't have
to bother with regulations and is allowed to do anything that people
can legally do when money isn't changing hands). See
<http://cabalamat.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/reforming-the-benefit-system/>
or <http://cabalamat.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/organization-theory/>
for details. This should appeal to intelligent people on the left and
right.

3. legalise cannabis. Like the Netherlands and Portugal have done. A
bit controversial, this.

Although I'm wary of the UK party having any of these in its
manifesto, at least for the 2009 election.

BTW -- any Swedish Pirate reading this: do you have any detailed
demographic breakdown of who voted for Piratpartiet in the European
election? I.e. in terms of age / sex / education / political alignment
(left-right), etc?

-- 
Philip Hunt, <cabalamat at googlemail.com>
Campaigns Officer / Press Officer, Pirate Party UK