Start
The idea for the Foundation DemocracyFirst was born many years ago (1968). It made an indelible impression on many of us.
The reason was that the prosperity that we know in the Western world is restricted to a relatively small part of the world. Despite the fact that aid agencies for decades are trying to solve the problem, it prevails in much of the world since there still is poverty, hunger, and no clean drinking water. People are not able to receive education and they often lack the most essential medical care. Even now, in 2019, 820 million people still suffer hunger.
Despite all the wealth in the world and despite all the technical possibilities, these kind – of relative simple – problems remain unsolved. It is from this frustration, that the idea for the Foundation DemocracyFirst was born. The thought is that if democracy would function properly, so if really everyone is heard, these excesses would be solved tomorrow and permanently.
Also in groups and in the Western world democratic decision-making is not always sufficiently guaranteed. More and more people get frustrated and turn away from policymakers because they do not feel that they are heard. Even on a smaller scale, in companies and associations, people experience not enough possibilities to develop initiatives or make a proposal or view to be heard by the board or their managers.
Development democracy
Throughout history, man has always looked for ways to spread his ideas and find allies for those ideas. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this was done by means of the printing press. And in the twentieth century, the mimeograph machine and later the copier played an important role. These techniques have been crucial to the development of democracy.
Now the Internet plays this role, and OpinionFirst provides the technology and structure, to democratic decision making with a lot more features than the mimeograph machine.
We are convinced that it is possible to create a more engaged society. A society in which poverty and hunger are more easily solved, just because people can propose solutions and do have the opportunity to take initiatives themselves. The Foundation DemocracyFirst provides, fully non-profit, the means to make this possible.
The Foundation DemocracyFirst was founded on May 29, 2008. Around that time also a start was made with the first project, the development of OpinionFirst.