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John Macgregor (democracy re-design)

@johnmacgregor.bsky.social

630 followers 710 following 1K posts

Author, 'The Mechanics of Changing the World: Political Architecture to Roll Back State & Corporate Power' https://books2read.com/thirddraft Aussie, journo: NYT, SMH Designer, anti-poverty projects, Cambodia #ThirdDraftDemocracy #DemocracyWorks #Vote

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · Aug 25

My recent book interview with Kim Iversen. Our topics:

* War, inequality & govt corruption: insoluble in the current political framework

* And: #PoliticalReform, #SystemChange, #DirectDemocracy, #DeliberativeDemocracy, #ProportionalRepresentation, #VoteByMail, #Subsidiarity, #Referendums...

Revolutions Are Coming To The West: Fixing The Fatal Flaws That Cause Inevitable Collapse

The Kim Iversen Show LIVE | January 30, 2025 John MacGregor was a political journalist who saw firsthand that our current system was beyond repair—so he stepped away for eight years to design a new on

rumble.com

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 1d

#ThirdDraftDemocracy #Lobbying #Plutocracy

books2read.com/thirddraft

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 1d

In the US, 2013 to 2017, the Fortune 100 companies spent $2 billion in lobbying, which yielded $399 billion in federal contracts & grants—an ROI of nearly 20,000%.

We worry about war, inequality, chronic illness, cost-of-living...

But our original sin is state capture.

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 1d

In Australia, 2012 to 2015, the three major parties received $3.7 million from the oil & gas industry, which yielded $7.7 billion in subsidies—a return-on-investment (ROI) of two thousand to one.

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 1d

Democracy may be the best form of government, but its current incarnation is laughably capturable.

Indeed, nothing in the free market compares with the return-on-investment (ROI) from political donations.

Available now at your favorite digital store!

The Mechanics of Changing the World: Political Architecture to Roll Back State & Corporate Power by John Macgregor

books2read.com

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 2d

The West won't solve this uber-problem by electing new leaders.

The problem is systemic.

You only replace a system with a system.

Our cure is democratisation.

Many birds, one stone.

#ThirdDraftDemocracy #Democracy #DemocraticReform

lnkd.in/gy9EYCwe

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

lnkd.in

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 2d

Likewise, the grip of money on national defence has ensured endless war.

Political donations have brought environmental damage by mining giants, vast public rip-offs by superannuation firms, & a corporate chokehold on universities.

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

lnkd.in

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 2d

My favourite graph: usage of the word 'cure' in English since the rise of pharmaceutical medicine.

The decline was surely because curing illness (being less profitable than treating it longterm) quietly fell out of favor.

The public narrative had to be adjusted.

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 5d

New institutions are needed.

That's the idea of my book: to place a weapon in the hands of ordinary people.

#ThirdDraftDemocracy #Democracy #Revolution

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 5d

I.e. we have (i) media/social media cartels & (ii) a corporate capture of politics. Both information & decision-making are controlled by a handful of the ultra-wealthy.

So none of the above dilemmas are soluble in the current framework.

Oligarchy is not going to undo oligarchy.

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 5d

1. None of this happened because of bad luck, or 'the tides of history'.

2. Most of it occurred because our democracies have transitioned to oligarchy.

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 5d

- As their leaders were captured by the same forces that drove the above, the longstanding political categories of Left and Right broke down. New alliances—melds of the old—took shape to replace them.

I trust that people will in time join all these dots to reach the obvious conclusions:

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 5d

- Having established universal surveillance, the core national security project became censorship.

- For information, majorities turned to podcasts, blogs, newsletters, websites... ('Mainstream media' is now a misnomer.)

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 5d

- The US & NATO will apparently lose a war to Russia.

- The chronic illness epidemic (stemming from the capture of the health narrative by Big Ag & Pharma) is now approaching economic unsustainability. (Societies can no longer afford to have so many sick.)

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 5d

But the extraordinary hinge years of 2024-5—once they're mentally processed—will surely stir thoughts about Level 1: about the role of democratic design in our fall:

- US economic dominance gave way to the BRICS & the Gulf states. The multipolar world arrived.

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 5d

It's not generally grasped that war, poverty & inflation are secondary symptoms:

That the primary ones are captured government, billionaire media, antiquated electoral machinery, & civic ignorance.

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 5d

A year on from the publication of my book, getting anyone to think on Level 1 is still hard.

Most people remain fixated on Level 2 (symptoms)—& on leaders, legislation, policy ('treatments'): still believing there will be answers there.

#ThirdDraftDemocracy

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 10d

The disaster is never given a true diagnosis, so recurrence is assured.

Elections don't fix this.

The problem is systemic.

#ThirdDraftDemocracy

books2read.com/thirddraft

Available now at your favorite digital store!

The Mechanics of Changing the World: Political Architecture to Roll Back State & Corporate Power by John Macgregor

books2read.com

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 10d

- To achieve the deregulation that caused the GFC, the finance industry threw money at regulators, legislators & presidents.

- To soft-pedal the atrocities in Gaza, the Israel Lobby pays influencers, presidents, legislators, parties, media, universities, think tanks...

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 10d

- To get a drug approved, Pharma buys out trial scientists, ethics committees, medical journals, regulators, politicians, media, patient lobby groups, medical schools, doctors, doctors’ professional bodies...

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 10d

Declining public health, rising inequality. War abroad, disunity at home.

The root cause is not hard to identify. Wealth has captured policy:

Available now at your favorite digital store!

The Mechanics of Changing the World: Political Architecture to Roll Back State & Corporate Power by John Macgregor

books2read.com

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 12d

That's why #ThirdDraftDemocracy includes the break-up of media cartels.

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 12d

The US #media is controlled by six companies.⁠

In Italy it’s seven, in Britain it’s four. In Canada & Australia it’s three.

Social is worse again.

You can't vote wisely when all your information is selected for you by billionaires.

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 13d

“𝐈𝐧 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭.”

- 𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐏𝐢𝐭𝐤𝐢𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐲

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 13d

3. We, the People have zero involvement in governing

Fixes? More #DeliberativeDemocracy & #DirectDemocracy are a start.

Or a suite of interlocking reforms, such as #ThirdDraftDemocracy, to revamp the whole corrupted system.

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 13d

The decline of the West stems, more than anything, from the failure of its version of democracy

Our representative system doesn’t work very well because:

1. Legislatures are capturable by wealth

2. Power attracts non-normal people (dissociated, a bit narcissistic, able to lie easily…)

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