[pp.int.general] question about organisation of national pirate parties

[Gregory Engels]

On 09.03.2010, at 20:45, Reinier Bakels wrote:

> I'd like to know how national parties are organised. I assume that  
> in most countries only registered associations can register as  
> political parties, like in the Netherlands? In particular I am  
> interested in the *internal* democracy of national PP's. Do you  
> adopt a one-man-one-vote system, or a tiered system?
> Some people argue that a tiered system is indispensable for defense  
> against "troll" attacks (e.g. a major GEMA delegation in Germany  
> becoming PPDE member - so that there is a pro-copyright majority),  
> but - at least under (even "default") Dutch association law, the  
> board decides who can be a member - and will not accept memebrship  
> applications from trolls.
>
> I believe that direct democracy is indispensable for a political  
> organisation. Do you?
>
> reinier

I can elaborate on our situation here in Germany.

Legal: we have a "law about the political parties" wich regulates a  
lot of aspects of a party organisation and mandates democratic  
principles in the inner organisation. It does not denying the tiered  
delegates systems, in fact all other political parties have multi- 
tiered delegates systems over 4 levels (county ->  district ->   
federate state -> state).  A political party does not need a  
registering as a juridical person - it becomes an "unincorporated  
association" by signing its statutes at the founding assembly. It can  
be registered by registering with the registration office and become  
an "incorporated society" but this is not a necessity. It will get a  
recognition as a political party by declaring its will for running in  
elections and applying at the election supervisor, who (after a check  
of the statutes for compliance with the law about the political  
parties) admits or denies the accreditation for elections. (Parties  
like the PP-DE, who are not represented in parliaments needs to  
collect suporters signatures to demonstrate it has support from the  
population)

Democracy - right now we have about 12k party members in Germany and  
the current statutes do not have a tiered delegates system. A voting  
right is tied to paid memberships dues (currently 36 Euro per year),  
no requirements for a length of the membership. The party programme  
and the statutes changes needs to be issued by the general party  
assembly with at least 2/3rd of the votes. The proposals for changes  
need to be submitted  4 weeks in advance to a general assembly.

The danger of an under-run by some political fraction is possible on  
the level of Party Officers, not so much on the level of the party  
programme. And frankly, no system can eliminate the "danger" that  
someone might be different opinion and will try to communicate this.

P.S: the current statues can be found here: http://wiki.piratenpartei.de/Satzung


Best Regards,

Gregory Engels
International Coordinator
Pirate Party of Germany
  
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