We have started discussions in Canada about producing a short film/animation that would introduce the concept of electronic direct democracy parties:
Scene 1: Start with the question "Do you live in a democracy?"
(narrator) The word democracy comes from the Greek (dēmokratía) "rule of the people"
(showing scenes from Ancient Greece) Every "citizen" could vote, every citizen could propose law. (trying not to draw too much attention to the inherent racism of Athenian direct democracy).
Scene 2: (show people working in the fields, mountains, etc.) As countries got bigger, it was not possible for every citizen to go vote in person to the agora, so people started electing one person to go vote on the behalf of their villagers: the beginning of representative democracy and traditional elections.
Scene 3: (flash forward centuries -- showing representatives campaigning but also showing how the representatives didn't go to represent their people anymore but would form "clans" with other representatives to win at the game of politics: the dawn of party politics.
Scene 4: While the voters are out in the streets protesting and signing petitions on issues -- you see lobby groups and industries in the backroom giving bags of money to elected representatives and finally, on the big screen, citizens see their representatives voting against the people's will.. discouraged, they walk back home.
Scene 5: The year is 2011 -- The citizens get back home, open their personal computer, and suddenly a light beam jumps out of the screen -- a phenomenon seen across the world.. thanks to the Internet, citizens can once again vote directly on issues as they once did in Ancient Greece.
Full circle back to the start. Do you live in a true democracy?
Scene 6: Finally, you would see the parties emerging from the animated computer screens coming to life across the world -- Demoex (Vallentuna), Demoex UK, Aktiv Demokrati (Sweden), Online Senator (Australia), Online Party of Canada, Partido de Internet (Spain -- BTW, Paul do you have their contact info?), etc.
I think that if done correctly, such a video could have the impact that this one had for Avaaz.org:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWyJJQbFago We need to spread the word that there is another option to representative democracy out there (sounds a bit like propaganda, I know -- the term propaganda was not pejorative in origin, it meant "to propagate" the good news) -- especially at a time when the people of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, etc. think that they will be much better off with a representative democracy (yes, having a choice between 2 people as opposed to 1 will be better, but only marginally better).
Once people understand that our politically-neutral "parties" are not just some isolated cases but a worldwide phenomenon happening at every levels, traditional party politics and their "leaders" can never be taken seriously again.
