Facts and Arguments about the Introduction of Initiative and ...

ture out to get something done by a state that operates like
a service station (...), the liberal ‘civil society’ model can only
represent a rudimentary type of social relationships that remain
superficially instrumental. The concept of freedom
in this model is therefore hyper-individualistic, negative
and oppositional. It cannot respond to the desire to create
communities and solidarity that overcomes modern people
in mobile, post-industrial societies.” From this so-called
‘libertarian’ position, one quickly comes up with ideas of
‘push-button’ direct democracy, televoting, etc. The personal
opinions of the ‘atomised’ members of society flow
directly into the decision-making, without there being any
process of the communal formation of shared perceptions.
• Barber (1997) argues for ‘strong democracy’: “In the
strong democratic view, citizens are seen a members of a
‘civil society’ because they are active, responsible, involved
members of groups and communities. (...) Citizens (...)
understand that democracy is precisely that type of state
in which not politicians and bureaucrats, but rather empowered
people use their legal powers to put flesh on the
bones of their freedom; within which freedom implies both
the obligations of social responsibility and citizenship, and
the rights of legal entities. In this type of state, rights and
responsibilities are two sides of a single citizens’ identity,
which belongs neither to the government bureaucrats nor
the private consumers, but exclusively to the citizens.”
If we include both poles of morality (the individual and the
suprapersonal) as harmonious equals, we arrive at a democratic
process of collective perception-formation, followed by
individual decision-making. We see again here how radical
direct democracy and radical federalism organically complement
each other. The suprapersonal aspect of morals naturally
works itself out between people. In a democratic society,
it cannot be imposed from above – neither by a king, a
president or a cabal of party leaders. It appears in the discussions
and the interactions of people who do not confront
each other as atomised individuals, but who, forming bonds
with each other, have organised themselves federatively into
a social network. In a strong democracy, people listen to each
other, there is social debate, and people modify each other’s
opinions. But the final decision, the moment of voting, is a
personal matter – because, ultimately, one has to vote out of
one’s best insights and conscience, for only individuals have
an intellect and a conscience. This is where the individual
pole of morals and involvement is found. Only direct democracy
properly allows for this kind of individual judgement.
And since in a federative society that individual judgement
(in the vote) is preceded by the shared perception-forming
process, the individual decision is able to transcend the limitations
and one-sidedness of the isolated individual.
Maslow: a phenomenological theory
of motivation
It remains for us still to examine whether in the course of
the democratic decision-making process, people actually do
take into account the interests of the community. What motives
drive people in their actions, including their political
decision-making? In forming a picture of this, we will make
use of the influential theory of motivation propounded by
Abraham Maslow (Maslow, 1943a).
According to Maslow, there is a hierarchy of human needs
and desires. As long as a more primary need remains un-
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satisfied, this need continues to determine motivation and
other needs scarcely come into play, if at all. Maslow distinguishes
two types of needs: basic needs (so-called ‘deficiency
needs’), which are satisfied from outside; and the need for
fulfilment or self-actualization (‘meta-need’), which is met
by inner activity. Of these, the basic needs come first. Only
when they have been largely satisfied will the need for selffulfilment
become the main motivator.
Maslow makes a distinction between the following basic
needs:
Physiological needs
The need for food, light, etc.: “For the man who is extremely
and dangerously hungry, no other interests exist but food.
He dreams food, he remembers food, he thinks about food,
he emotes about food, he perceives only food and he wants
only food.” (Maslow, 1943a, p. 374) As long as these needs are
not met, they dominate human motivation, but once they are
satisfied, different needs surface: “What happens to man’s
desires when there is plenty of bread and when his belly is
chronically filled? At once other (and ‘higher’) needs emerge
and these, rather than physiological hungers, dominate the organism.
And when these in turn are satisfied, again new (and
still ‘higher’) needs emerge and so on. This is what we mean
by saying that the basic human needs are organized into a hierarchy
of relative pre-potency”. (Maslow, 1943a, p. 375)
Safety needs
The physiological needs relate to immediate necessities.
Someone wracked by hunger and thirst is not really worried
about the future. They want to eat and drink now. But once
this immediate need for sustenance has been satisfied, concern
about future supplies will arise. Then a need arises for
guaranteed food supplies, for a permanent roof over their
head, for protection from the cold and against dangers. We
want to survive and we need safety and security to do so.
The physiological needs are linked to the immediate situation;
the need for security relates to our continuing future. It
includes a need for order and a certain routine, and for the
absence of unforeseen threats. According to Maslow (1943a),
children especially have a strong need for a regular pattern of
life, in which they feel safe and secure.
Belongingness and love (social) needs
“If both the physiological and the safety needs are fairly well
gratified, then there will emerge the love and affection and esteem
needs (...) the person will feel keenly, as never before, the
absence of friends, or a sweetheart, or a wife, or children. He will
hunger for affectionate relations with people in general, namely,
for a place in his group, and he will strive with great intensity to
achieve this goal.”(Maslow, 1943a, p. 381). An important point,
according to Maslow, is that this concerns both receiving and
giving affection. At the level of direct consciousness, where our
emotional life is to be found, the experience of indifference
plays the same role as does hunger at the level of the physiological
body. It is worth noting that Maslow does not consider sexual
desires as basic needs: physiological and belongingness needs
can operate to varying degrees as motives here.
Esteem needs (recognition by others and self-esteem)
These needs are naturally closely connected with the previous
needs, but are distinguished by the desire for continuity.