More or less all the parties are faced with the need for renewal. This is especially true for inner-party democracy and the involvement of citizens in their work. The times in which proposed in the backroom politics of a few experts and officials have identified themselves may end. The same is true of the central themes of the society. More participation, more participation of all the day. The two major parties have lost the last election some 10 million voters, the number of party members is at almost all parties for years back. 875,000 people have chosen the Pirate Party. That's 2 percent of the vote. In the case of up to 25-year-olds, the proportion was 9 percent. You want to use the Internet more for the policy. The Greens have started 30 years ago, with 1.5 percent. It may be on the program of the Pirate Party (still) smiling, one thing is certain: Like no other party, it has managed to put on a few products over the Internet is a vast campaign and many participate in the formulation of their topics. New movement comes from the "Facebook generation" on. Many want to engage in new forms for the community.
The erosion process of the traditional parties is the extension of new communication tools such as Web 2.0 over. Citizens want transparency, they want a say in social networks, they want to contribute their knowledge. This also applies to politics. Websites such as www.Abgeordnetenwatch.de ask the parliamentarians as they have stood up for citizens' concerns out. All members of the Bundestag and the parliamentary deputies from the provinces may be asked voters in this virtual memory public. This will expand.
politicians are increasingly becoming service providers. Parties need to develop modern networks, perhaps with different memberships, where subjects may be taken up widely and aggressively. Knowledge sharing through valuable. Thus, new solutions for the policies of tomorrow. Citizens need to be addressed and their company involved as active designers . Only with them will allow the radical restructuring of industrial society to a low carbon society. The offer of the policy must be implemented participatory and activating, write Claus Leggewie and Harald Welzer in its recent remarkable book "The End of the world as we knew it."
The SPD is in these days of the first on that challenge. Willy Brandt, for its time "more Dare democracy ". That is true today. The other parties it will not be different if they do not rock the renewal process to greater participation of people at an early stage. Never before in history, we had so many instruments for dialogue, as it is today. We have to use them consistently.
