Ecology Democracy Party

Last updated
Ecology Democracy Party
ChairmanAndrew Schuler
Founder Ken Pentel
Founded2010 (2010)
Ideology Deep ecology
Green politics
Colors Green and blue
Senate
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House of Representatives
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U.S. Senate
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U.S. House of Representatives
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Website
www.ecologydemocracyparty.org

The Ecology Democracy Party is a deep ecological political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Founded in 2010 by Ken Pentel, the party advocates a "shift from a human-centered to an ecological view of the world." [1]

Deep ecology ecological and environmental philosophy

Deep ecology is an ecological and environmental philosophy promoting the inherent worth of living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, plus a restructuring of modern human societies in accordance with such ideas.

A political party is an organized group of people, often with common views, who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. The party agrees on some proposed policies and programmes, with a view to promoting the collective good or furthering their supporters' interests.

U.S. state constituent political entity of the United States

In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are currently 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory and shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Due to this shared sovereignty, Americans are citizens both of the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons restricted by certain types of court orders. Four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names.

Contents

Pentel was the Green Party of Minnesota candidate for Governor of Minnesota in 1998, 2002, and 2006. He has said his motivation for founding a new party was "the lack of discipline and low expectations among the movements and organizations I have worked with."[ citation needed ]

Green Party of Minnesota

The Green Party of Minnesota is a green political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is affiliated with the Green Party of the United States.

Governor of Minnesota head of state and of government of the U.S. state of Minnesota

The Governor of Minnesota is the chief executive of the U.S. state of Minnesota, leading the state's executive branch. Forty people have been governor of Minnesota, though historically there were also three governors of Minnesota Territory. Alexander Ramsey, the first territorial governor, also served as state governor several years later. State governors are elected to office by popular vote, but territorial governors were appointed to the office by the United States president. The current governor of Minnesota is Tim Walz of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL).

Ideology

The purpose of the Ecology Democracy Party is to restore a sustainable relationship with the Earth through education and grassroots organizing. The party attempts to offer guidance for necessary structural changes in the economy, the way we vote, and who influences our government. It attempts to accomplish these structural changes through three mandates:

A grassroots movement is one which uses the people in a given district, region, or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at the local, regional, national, or international level. Grassroots movements are associated with bottom-up, rather than top-down decision making, and are sometimes considered more natural or spontaneous than more traditional power structures. Grassroots movements, using self-organization, encourage community members to contribute by taking responsibility and action for their community. Grassroots movements utilize a variety of strategies from fundraising and registering voters, to simply encouraging political conversation. Goals of specific movements vary and change, but the movements are consistent in their focus on increasing mass participation in politics. These political movements may begin as small and at the local level, but grassroots politics as Cornel West contends are necessary in shaping progressive politics as they bring public attention to regional political concerns.

  1. The establishment of an ecology-based economy.
  2. The implementation of proportional representation in the Minnesota House of Representatives.
  3. The removal of private money and corporate interference from the people's government.

The party advocates ecology, campaign finance reform, proportional representation, ending corporate personhood, holism, public funding of elections and establishing a tax-refundable Minnesota currency with zero interest. [2]

Ecology Scientific study of the relationships between living organisms and their environment

Ecology is the branch of biology which studies the interactions among organisms and their environment. Objects of study include interactions of organisms that include biotic and abiotic components of their environment. Topics of interest include the biodiversity, distribution, biomass, and populations of organisms, as well as cooperation and competition within and between species. Ecosystems are dynamically interacting systems of organisms, the communities they make up, and the non-living components of their environment. Ecosystem processes, such as primary production, pedogenesis, nutrient cycling, and niche construction, regulate the flux of energy and matter through an environment. These processes are sustained by organisms with specific life history traits. Biodiversity means the varieties of species, genes, and ecosystems, enhances certain ecosystem services.

Proportional representation (PR) characterizes electoral systems in which divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. If n% of the electorate support a particular political party, then roughly n% of seats will be won by that party. The essence of such systems is that all votes contribute to the result - not just a plurality, or a bare majority. The most prevalent forms of proportional representation all require the use of multiple-member voting districts, as it is not possible to fill a single seat in a proportional manner. In fact, the implementations of PR that achieve the highest levels of proportionality tend to include districts with large numbers of seats.

Corporate personhood is the legal notion that a corporation, separately from its associated human beings, has at least some of the legal rights and responsibilities enjoyed by natural persons. In the United States and most countries, corporations have a right to enter into contracts with other parties and to sue or be sued in court in the same way as natural persons or unincorporated associations of persons. In a U.S. historical context, the phrase 'Corporate Personhood' refers to the ongoing legal debate over the extent to which rights traditionally associated with natural persons should also be afforded to corporations. A headnote issued by the Court Reporter in the 1886 Supreme Court case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co. claimed to state the sense of the Court regarding the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as it applies to corporations, without the Court having actually made a decision or issued a written opinion on that point. This was the first time that the Supreme Court was reported to hold that the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause granted constitutional protections to corporations as well as to natural persons, although numerous other cases, since Dartmouth College v. Woodward in 1819, had recognized that corporations were entitled to some of the protections of the Constitution. In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014), the Court found that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 exempted Hobby Lobby from aspects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act because those aspects placed a substantial burden on the closely held company's owners' exercise of free religion.

Elections

Ken Pentel ran for Governor of Minnesota in 2010 and received 6,180 votes, or 0.29%.[ citation needed ]

In 2012 the party endorsed write-in candidate Andrew Schuler for U.S. Senate and ran Anthony Hilton for the State House, district 59B. Hilton received 1,423 votes, or 8.05%. It also ran Danene Provencher for Mound City Council, who received 26% of the vote.

In 2015 Schuler was endorsed as a candidate for Golden Valley City Council. He received 8.32% of the vote. [3]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Ecology Democracy Network". Archived from the original on 2010-08-31. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
  2. ↑ "Ken Pentel & the Ecology Democracy Party". Archived from the original on 2010-11-01. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-06-29. Retrieved 2015-06-14.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
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