Unit Convention again! (ritual, America, pray, spiritual, philosophy)

[Booko]

And speaking of community life (from another thread), it's nearly time for Unit Convention again.

For those of you who are not Baha'is, Unit Convention is the meeting Baha'is have every year where we elect a delegate to send to the National Conventions in April.

The delegates at that convention then elect 9 members to the National Spiritual Assemblies.

Every 5 years, members of National Spiritual Assemblies elect the Universal House of Justice, which is our highest institution.

While a democratic process, Baha'i elections occur in an environment where there are no campaign speeches, no nominations, no politics, nothing of that sort.

For those reading my comments on another thread or two lately about the problems of partisan politics, as Baha'is, we know it's possible to have democracy without the downside of divisive partisanship, because we've been doing this successfully for quite a while now.

How about some other thoughts on Baha'i elections?

[JMoum04]

I voted for my very first time this year, and I have to say, it was honestly a little overwhelming. There were so many names on the list and I didn't recognize even half of them. Man, I had no idea there were so many Baha'is in my area.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to do all ofthe fun "Adult" stuff, because I chose to help my mom with children's classes instead. But to be honest, I didn't mind one bit. In fact, I rather enjoyed it and I'd probably be willing to work with the 3-5 year old group again next year.

[arthra]

Title: Arash Abizadeh. "Democratic Elections without Campaigns?
Normative Foundations of National Baha'i Elections." World Order 37.1
(2005): 7-49.

Abstract:

National Baha'i elections, conducted world-wide without
nominations, competitive campaigns, or parties, challenge the emerging
consensus that the only truly democratic elections are multiparty
elections in which each party's candidates compete freely for votes.
National Baha'i electoral institutions are based on three core values:

respect for the inherent dignity of each person,

the unity and
solidarity of persons collectively,

and the justice and fairness of
institutions.

While liberal political philosophy interprets respect for
dignity exclusively in terms of equality and freedom, the Baha'i model
interprets dignity to require respect for the equality, freedom, and
nobility of each person.

The perfectionist focus on nobility helps
explain the distinct features of national Baha'i elections and, in
particular, the ban on campaigning. In light of ongoing concerns about
the character of the electoral process in actually existing
democracies,
further research into Baha'i elections and their philosophical
foundations provides a promising basis for rethinking widely held
liberal assumptions about how democratic elections must be conducted.

- I owe this to abstract by Arash Abizadeh to Rob Stockman

- Art

[HopefulNikki]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but...without campaigns, speeches,etc, how do you know who to vote for? How do you know where people stand on "the issues", so to speak? Without knowing those things, it seems like an election could quickly become a popularity contest; how do you avoid that?

[arthra]

Originally Posted by HopefulNikki

Maybe this is a dumb question, but...without campaigns, speeches,etc, how do you know who to vote for? How do you know where people stand on "the issues", so to speak? Without knowing those things, it seems like an election could quickly become a popularity contest; how do you avoid that?

Nikki,

Baha'i communities are I think a little different maybe from what a lot of us these days are used to... I mean all you see in the media are attacks on people and counter attacks and it gets ugly... there's fraud and influence peddling and votes are bought and so on.. this is also due to the partisan nature of American political life.

Baha'is are not permitted to even register in political parties, rather we are non-partisan and we do vote of course in civil elections.

But our Baha'i communities are different.... When we vote we are in an attitude of prayer. We don't permit people to be nominated...nor do we allow partisanship or caucases to exist which cause polarities and bitterness and diviseness. When some one has served the Baha'i community in the past year they are remembered and so in prayer some Baha'is will vote for them to be a delegate... If tehy have enough votes a plurality they willbe our delegate to the National Convention. Similarly at the National level the election is carried out the same way to elect our National Spiritual Assembly next Ridwan or in April 2007 by your calendar.

- Art

[JMoum04]

Originally Posted by arthra

Nikki,

Baha'i communities are I think a little different maybe from what a lot of us these days are used to... I mean all you see in the media are attacks on people and counter attacks and it gets ugly... there's fraud and influence peddling and votes are bought and so on.. this is also due to the partisan nature of American political life.

Baha'is are not permitted to even register in political parties, rather we are non-partisan and we do vote of course in civil elections.

But our Baha'i communities are different.... When we vote we are in an attitude of prayer. We don't permit people to be nominated...nor do we allow partisanship or caucases to exist which cause polarities and bitterness and diviseness. When some one has served the Baha'i community in the past year they are remembered and so in prayer some Baha'is will vote for them to be a delegate... If tehy have enough votes a plurality they willbe our delegate to the National Convention. Similarly at the National level the election is carried out the same way to elect our National Spiritual Assembly next Ridwan or in April 2007 by your calendar.

- Art

Not only that, but we're also a very close knit community. As a result, we know which members are the most active, who has done what and served on what kinds of commitees, and most importantly, what the people are actually like. The members of the Baha'i community are a part of our personal lives, as a result, we know them personally, so we know what kind of people they really are without needing them to ever really tell us. So as a result, it's very easy to keep a person's character in mind when we vote for them.

[BruceDLimber]

Hi, there! :-)

JM>we're also a very close knit community. As a result, we know which members are the most active, who has done what and served on what kinds of commitees, and most importantly, what the people are actually like. The members of the Baha'i community are a part of our personal lives, as a result, we know them personally, so we know what kind of people they really are without needing them to ever really tell us. So as a result, it's very easy to keep a person's character in mind when we vote for them.

And as a corollary to this, while we're free to vote for whom we choose, I think that in general, the idea is that we vote only for those we know well enough to be aware of their personalities and actions.

And, in fact, this upholds the idea that those considered best-qualified by the most people do indeed tend to be the best qualified....

Regards,

Bruce