ABSTRACT
A Popular Second Assembly is proposed for the UN, directly elected by a new system of proportional representation, which gives each elected deputy his/her own local area to represent. It thus enables both localities, and party or opinion minorities, to gain representation. In order to give the deputies better contact with the electors, and to bring the whole system down to a human scale, a four-tier structure is proposed, the four tiers being as follows: at the bottom, the four billion or so electors of the world; next, a smaller number of proportionally elected ‘primary representatives’; above them, a still smaller number of ‘secondary representatives’, also directly elected; and above them the deputies of the Popular Assembly. This is intended both to make possible, and to encourage, wide and intensive participation, and to coordinate the many local dialogues into one global dialogue, in which people confer locally, in order to press for action globally.
