○Bridges
In a Municipality, bridges longer than 10 meters are basically constructed as wooden arch types with stone masonry; concrete is not used.
○Nomination Election (Municipality)
In a Prout Village, Leaders are chosen based on sincerity. This ensures that war does not occur, corruption is avoided, and decisions are made considering the common good. Conversely, if an insincere Leader is chosen, conflicts, corruption, and selfish decisions become prevalent.
This sincerity is closely related to the human Ego. The Ego is the concept of “the self,” and the stronger the “self,” the more a person tends toward insincerity. This is because asserting “the self” leads to prioritizing oneself. A sincere person can suppress this “self” and prioritize others instead—that is, someone who genuinely wishes for the happiness of others. To eliminate war and corruption from the world, it is essential at every leadership level to choose sincere people as Leaders.
The following table shows the criteria for good and bad Leaders. In society, there are people whose sincerity naturally shines through or whose sincere words and actions might not be apparent on the surface but exist nonetheless. On the other hand, there are those whose insincerity is visible in their attitudes and behavior. Most people fall somewhere in between these extremes, showing intermediate personality tendencies. This Nomination Election enables residents to recommend sincere or nearly sincere people as Leaders from among those around them, thus building a truly peaceful society.
Criteria for Good Leaders
When a person is elected as a politician in a monetary society, they gain rewards and status that please the Ego, such as power, privileges, social status, influence, fame, and high salaries. This creates a system that tends to attract people with strong, dishonest Egοs. As the number of dishonest people increases, the transparency and fairness of elections decline, and fraudulent elections become more common.
One benchmark is the 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index published by the international NGO Transparency International. This index quantifies how much corruption is perceived in governments and public institutions based on opinions from experts and business people. The global average score is 43 out of 100. Among 180 countries, about two-thirds (120 countries) score below 50, indicating that corruption remains a serious issue. Denmark ranks first with 90 points, Japan is 20th with 71 points, and South Sudan is last with 8 points.
The main reasons these problems occur are as follows:
・It is a monetary society. In other words, the rewards of power, privilege, and high income gained by becoming a politician tend to attract people with strong Egos, and voters must choose from among such candidates.
・Voters do not deeply recognize that the strength or lightness of Ego is a decisive factor determining candidates’ words and actions.
・The election system itself is not designed to identify the strength of a candidate’s Ego (= personality).
・Voters lack unified criteria and values regarding Ego when selecting Leaders.
In Prout Village, to solve these issues, Nomination Elections are conducted to select persons of character. In schools or workplaces, after regularly seeing the same people in the same organization for about a year, various personalities become apparent, and the general evaluation by those around tends to be similar. In other words, people observe others’ words and actions closely. For example: “Person A is kind and cooperative with everyone,” “Person B is talkative and funny but somewhat cunning,” “Person C always talks behind friends’ backs,” “Person D is shy but serious and proceeds at their own pace without being swayed.” Such evaluations are possible regardless of academic ability and can be made even by 13-year-olds.
In other words, from the daily life around one’s own residence, a person is recommended by others. The person with the most recommendations becomes the 5th Leader of the Municipality (5th Community). Then, through successive stages, the selected 5th Leader can become the 1st Leader, who participates in the Prefectural Parliament where all Prefectural Leaders gather.
Also, by residents performing the necessary Duty Share for Municipality management, the personalities of people working together, like in a workplace, become apparent. Therefore, before the Nomination Election, a survey asking “Who do you recommend as an honest person?” is conducted. Those who receive high evaluations are announced within their Municipality (5th Community), and residents use this as a reference for their recommendations.
The role of the Municipality includes, for example, if a problem arises nearby, residents consult the 5th Leader or 5th Deputy Leader of the Municipality (5th Community). If necessary, the 5th Leader gathers neighboring residents to seek resolution through dialogue. If the issue remains unresolved, they escalate it to the 4th Leader in the next higher community level, aiming to resolve the matter through dialogue as a larger issue. In this way, problems are solved through dialogue, and each Leader gains experience in smaller organizations, growing into a 1st Leader. In such cases, when facing problems without clear answers, the true capability of the Leader and Deputy Leader becomes apparent.
This Nomination Election system is conducted under the same rules from Municipality level up to the World Federation.
Nomination Election Rules
One reason for holding a Nomination Election once per year is to prevent residents from becoming indifferent to elections. Another reason is that even if a person is selected based on honesty, some aspects of their character may not be visible in everyday life. When they gain actual power or a position of authority, their true nature may be revealed. By having an annual election day, it becomes easy to make leadership changes if necessary.
The right to recommend starts at age 10, and unless there are special circumstances, the municipality must ask every resident for recommendations. This age is considered sufficient for children to express their own will, and it is also an easy-to-understand milestone in life.
Although all residents have the right to recommend, they must have lived in the area for at least one year. The reason is to avoid situations where someone who has just moved in, and has not met most residents of the five communities, recommends without sufficient knowledge.
In addition, in the municipalities or parliaments, the Leader and Deputy Leader act together. The final decision authority rests with the Leader, but to prevent unilateral action or abuse of power, it is assumed that decisions are always discussed thoroughly with the Deputy Leader beforehand. To ensure this system is not merely symbolic, the Deputy Leader has the right to hold a Nomination Election once per year in their municipality or parliament, which determines whether the Leader continues in their role. The details are summarized in the table below.
Rules for Leaders and Deputy Leaders
○Nomination Election (Prefecture, Country, Six Continents, World Federation)
Choosing sincere leaders within municipalities forms the foundation of all governance. The Municipality (1st Community) Leader participates next in the Prefectural Parliament.
In Japan in 2000, there were 47 prefectures, so there would be 47 Prefectural Leaders and 47 Prefectural Deputy Leaders. From these 94 individuals, the National Parliament holds Nomination Elections to select the National Leader and National Deputy Leader of Japan, who then participate in the Six Continents Continental Parliament.
By the year 2000, there were approximately 200 countries worldwide. Thus, there are about 200 National Leaders and 200 National Deputy Leaders. Among them, each National Leader participates in a Nomination Election within their own continent of the Six Continents to select a Continental Leader and Continental Deputy Leader. These two then participate in the World Federation World Parliament. The Six Continents are: (1) Oceania, (2) Asia, (3) Europe, (4) Africa, (5) North America, and (6) South America. Antarctica is excluded as it has no permanent residents.
Thus, a total of 12 Continental Leaders and Continental Deputy Leaders—two from each of the Six Continents—participate in the World Federation World Parliament. Afterwards, a Nomination Election is held within the World Parliament to decide the World Leader and World Deputy Leader. Here again, members from Group A and Group B are selected alternately.
Currently, the World Federation’s operational organization consists of three sectors: General Administration, Medical & Food, and Manufacturing. Although the number of these sectors may increase in the future, if the World Federation starts with this structure, the Leaders and Deputy Leaders of these three sectors will be discussed and decided within the World Parliament based on who is sincere and capable, just as in municipalities and Prefectural Parliaments. Ultimately, the World Leader holds the right to appoint them.
In this way, from the Municipality (5th Community) up to the World Federation World Parliament, the operational and Nomination Election system is the same. Through nine levels of Nomination Elections—from Municipality (5th Community), (4th Community), (3rd Community), (2nd Community), (1st Community), Prefectural Parliament, National Parliament, Continental Parliament, to World Parliament—the World Leader of the World Federation is chosen.
In monetary societies’ political systems, power is often divided among legislative, judicial, and executive branches. However, the World Federation does not disperse power. What should be understood here is that the Continental Leaders participating in the World Federation are sincere and virtuous individuals selected from municipalities. In other words, the World Federation is a gathering of virtuous people, and virtuous people do not abuse power. Residents who nominate leaders must be careful not to recommend those who might misuse power.
Also, since it is premised that many problems are resolved at the municipal level, the issues addressed at the World Federation level are limited.
○Duty Share System
“Duty” carries the nuance of a social and moral “role to be fulfilled,” while “Share” means to share or distribute. Since the operation of municipalities is carried out by residents, basic living infrastructure such as medical care, food, housing, water and electricity infrastructure, education, clothing, and security maintenance must be managed on a rotating basis among residents.
Some residents actively and seriously participate, while others do not participate at all. Therefore, participation is not voluntary but recorded to ensure fair and equal time commitment. Currently, the guideline is about 2 hours per day or roughly 8 hours per week.
The tasks include the following:
Since this community work targets basic living infrastructure, cultural activities such as music, arts, or sports team coaching are not included in Duty Share.
In Prout Village, Nomination Elections become possible from age 10. Correspondingly, simple Duty Share activities also start from age 10. Because Duty Share has an aspect of occupational experience necessary for municipal operation, it offers a broad range of experiences and an opportunity to understand the overall picture required for administration.
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