The motivation and purpose behind the proutistic political system is basically to administer in a manner so that economic institutions are able to materialize the principles and policies of a progressive economy, and that the society progresses ahead with the sublime motto: “For the good and happiness of all.” Political institutions are not an end in themselves but a means to achieve economic well-being and social progress.
Existing political institutions have a tendency to idealize themselves. Adjectives of praise in the name of “people’s democracy”, “social democracy” or “individual liberty” flourish in political speeches. This bad habit, a sure sign of professional, shrewd politicians, has significantly contributed to an era of demagogical slogans and instigated populist politicians to play a cunning game in order to capture power and hold on to it.
The proutistic political system is selecto-electional. It means those who may have the right to vote or are to be eligible to be elected should possess the following qualities:
- Educated in a sense that the person has attained a basic knowledge of social circumstances
- Socioeconomic consciousness
- Manifest moral integrity
Of course there will be an incessant endeavour in the proutistic system to let every member of society develop these qualities in order to bring each one into the Electoral College. As long as a person does not possess these qualities, he or she will not be allowed to pollute fair and impartial elections, as is experienced today by circumspect voters all over the world.
The test of democracy is not in the number of powerful people but in their method of selection and in their accountability to the larger group of citizens. Without a proper system of selection, democracy degenerates into “mobocracy”, thereby creating a situation of exploitation. It has been often witnessed that regionalism, parochialism, casteism, groupism, religionism and other narrow sentimental or even psychic appeals play a vital role in the selection and election of candidates in most modern democracies. The huge role of Big Business and definitely the influence of money in elections even in the most thriving of democracies undermines the spirit and content of democracy.
The proutists’ concept of a selecto-electional system leaves no room for any such diseased competition or element to contaminate the social fabric.
Q. How will the “selection” be made in this selecto-electional system?
Selection will be made according to the “rule of law.” It will not be left to whims of the political administration. The rules will be made keeping in mind the following necessary qualities:
- Moral integrity
- Socioeconomic consciousness
Proper education implies that a person is aware of his or her status in the cosmological phenomenon. The ethical factor is an inspiration from the Supreme consciousness – spiritual and sublime. Socioeconomic consciousness implies that the person is aware of the socioeconomic situation of society, its needs and future aspirations. The qualifying rules and the method will be such that it may successfully test the presence of the above-mentioned factors in a person.
In order to imbue the above-mentioned values in a citizen, institutions will be established which will prepare the people accordingly and issue an certificate after an examination (written or unwritten). These institutions will be free from any political or government influence. They will be managed and controlled by an independent and autonomous body like the Election Commission or the Public Service Commission. Their curriculum will be drawn up by expert educationists, sociologists, philanthropists and spiritualists who will be free from any political aspiration.
Such qualified persons will form the Electoral College, which will be divided into regions or administrative units to elect the members of the political institutions. After the formation of the Electoral College, the elections will be direct.
Q. What will prevent this system from leading to autocratic dictatorship?
Administrators or leaders elected through the selecto-electional system will be fundamentally responsible to the electorate. Empowered by PROUT’s principles of maximum utilization and rational distribution the electorate will be conscious and vigilant to make sure that their elected representatives neither go astray, deviate, nor grow ambitious to usurp power beyond the limits imposed by the constitution or the guiding rules of administration. Autocratic dictatorship emerges only when the dictator or his/her group is able to fool the people or the electorate and the latter is not responsive quickly enough to the pressure exercised over themselves.
Q. How will the majority of people be involved in selecto-electional system under PROUT?
In fact involvement in the economic-political structure does not stop at the act of voting. It implies that the great number of people and electorate are conscious enough to keep a constant vigil over the people they have elected to power. This is only possible if the educated electorate is socio-economically conscious enough to really grasp the dynamics in this area. It means that PROUT stands for active democratic participation and not passive voting. In this aspect, the conscious electorate will also maintain a closeness and constant communication with the aspiration of those who are yet to become the electors. A proutistic system will constantly endeavour to get all adults qualified as electors.
Under the present systems of universal adult voting franchise there is no real involvement of people in the political administration. People are misled with cheap slogans and narrow sentiments of caste, religion, provincialism, etc. or even by their likes, dislikes or fetishes. A demagogue or populist politician wins the game of election with cheap slogans and financial muscle whereas an honest and sincere aspirant loses. Actually democracy based on this franchise devoid of its three essential qualifications (education, moral integrity, socioeconomic consciousness) goes through only the ritual of voting under the spell of cheap slogans and exploitative financial muscle.
Q. How is PROUT’s system better than other systems including the present-day democracies?
For a proutistic political system to function well, the selected electorate (which may be in the millions) will completely identify themselves with the people. They will elect representatives to the political administrative institutions of the State using their capacity, quality, popularity and inquisitiveness. They will remain ever vigilant and involved in the working of the administration, and keep a close watch over their behavior and activities, in their individual as well as collective life, which, although so much advocated and desired, is rarely observed by today’s passive electorate.
Besides, since PROUT’s economic system has envisaged the importance of individual enterprise in the private small industrial sector and the cooperative system in the large industrial sector, it would not negate the natural urges of ownership and enterprise or will it lead to individually- or State-oriented exploitation . On the contrary, it will involve all sections of people in society and develop the harmonious growth of all the four psychic classes.
Q. Does PROUT propose the concentration of political power to be vested in one institution or in one person?
PROUT believes in the centralization of political power but not in its concentration in one institution or one person. To talk of the devolution of political power of the State under the present circumstances is as theoretical as the utopian Marxist concept of the “withering away” of the State – which is eyewash or hypocrisy. Even in those countries in the world where the writers of the constitution wished and drafted a system to avoid centralization of political power, circumstances ultimately led to its concentration. Of course, artificial circumstances had to be created in order to cover up such an event. The method may be different but the basic psychology, necessity or the story is the same. Because the reins of power were not in the hands of ethically strong persons as contemplated by PROUT, under one pretext or the other this centralization has lead to indiscriminate suffering or exploitation of the same people for whose benefit the institution of the State was originally created.
PROUT proposes the centralization of political power only as far as policy planning and general supervision are concerned. It devolves the legislative, executive, judicial and financial powers in such a manner that the power of actual execution is wielded by different institutions under the apex leadership of the Sadvipra Board, the highest Collective Body. Members or Sadvipras constituting the apex nucleus emerge through a selecto-electional process from the lower collective bodies. They will be guided by the rules and regulations framed by the aforementioned powers. The involvement of the people in general in the PROUT political system will be an automatic phenomenon accomplished by the philanthropic and elevated Sadvipras.
PROUT denounces the concept of concentrating any power in one person and advocates the concept of “collective leadership” at every stage.
Q. How is the Proutistic system better than other systems in administration?
Under communism, fascism or dictatorship all the powers of administration tend to get concentrated in one person or a group. The administrative machinery becomes completely committed to a fear-psychosis generated by the rich person or a group.
In present-day democracies, there is also an acute dependence of legislative and executive functionaries upon a person or a group of persons, whether it is a parliamentary system or a presidential one. As a result, the entire administration gets politically involved and decisions get politically tainted. In the final analysis the majority suffer.
Under the proutistic system, the administration and bureaucracy are to be guided by the “rules of law” without any fear or favour. The only commitment of the administration will be towards the ideal of PROUT. The scientific system of “separation of powers” will enable the administration to act, undauntedly and unassailed.
Q. How will PROUT lead to the formation of a world government and materialize the concept of universalism?
As mentioned earlier PROUT believes in the inherent inspiration of the Cosmic sentiment (“the Supreme Consciousness is my father, the Operative Principle is my mother, and the entire Universe is my home”); which also depends upon certain objective circumstances to be created by accomplishing the following factors:
(i) Common philosophy of life:
Spirituality provides human beings and humanity with a subtle and tremendous psycho-spiritual inspiration which enables the individual to move towards an exploitation-free social order and realize psychic expansion and spiritual freedom. With spirituality as a base, a rational philosophy should be evolved to deal with the physical, psychological and socio-philosophical problems of the day. An integrated rational theory dealing with all the three phases – spiritual, mental and physical – of human development will be the philosophy common to mankind in general. This will be evolutionary and ever-progressive, in which small details may vary according to relative environment of the age.
Such a philosophy of life will discourage thinking in parochial, caste- or class-oriented or conservative terms prevalent in regional societies. On the contrary it will inspire and encourage unifying and Cosmic sentiments.
(ii) Same constitutional structure:
Despite several obstacles of narrow regionalism, nationalism, casteism and other “isms” hampering human progress, an inherently powerful trend of social blending of humanity is in progress and needs a common constitutional structure to establish the world solidarity. A world government is also most essential for exercising full control in certain spheres, such as a world militia. Representatives in the world government headquarters should progressively expand the scope of these spheres and also form certain autonomous units (not necessarily national) to solve problems of education, food supplies, flood control, and public sentiments as well as look after the mundane and supramundane problems.
A lingua franca for the world should be evolved. Local languages with indigenous literature must also be developed to contribute towards world progress and thereby contribute to the common family of human beings.
(iii) Common penal code:
Crimes are acts forbidden by national laws while virtue and vice are the outcome of spiritual sanction and traditional customs. The concepts of lawmakers are very much influenced by these factors. The sense of crime has, therefore, a parallelism with the concept of virtue and vice, which differs from people to people and country to country. PROUT realizes that as long as differences remain in the concepts of crime and immorality, society will remain split. Hence, PROUT advocates that differences between various laws be reduced and the gap between cardinal moral and human laws should be bridged in order to progressively achieve a similarity in the concepts of sin, immorality and crime. “All those actions which help in the growth of spiritual, mental and physical aspects of human beings in general should come under the category of virtuous deeds, and those actions which go against humanity in its spiritual, mental and physical development must come under vice”.1
(iv) Availability (production, supply, purchasing capacity) of the minimum essentials of life.
The availability of minimum essentials (including food, clothing, housing, medical aid and education) is a must for the development of human personality and for achieving the goal of a world community. The requisite purchasing capacity should be provided to all individuals so that they become able to satisfy their minimum needs in the minimum time and utilize their surplus time in supramundane, metaphysical and spiritual spheres.
This never-ending effort for a proper economic adjustment must continue at all times with a view to assisting the spiritual, mental and physical evolution of human beings and also to let humanity develop a Cosmic sentiment for a Cosmic ideal and world fraternity.
Universalism is bound to surge forth as a spontaneous sentiment and natural realization.
1 “The Cosmic Brotherhood”, Idea and Ideology, P.R. Sarkar, 1959. AM Publications.
Copyright Proutist Universal 2011