A new political philosopher is emerging
I’ve been working on my alternative democracy — Tiered Democratic Governance — since 1997. Sometimes mostly writing; sometimes mostly promotion; sometimes taking a break to work on other inventions.
When promoting, I am interacting with the world. With these interactions, I have concluded that most political writers want to fix the current system. They believe voting, protesting, and posting on the internet are the ways for average people to bend the world to their way of thinking.
My new democracy interactions have found only a few innovative thinkers on governance. After 29 years, I could count them on two hands. Kevin Pauley is one of those thinkers.
But Kevin is different than I and the others. Kevin is not so focused on a system. He is more about the thinking that should go into any system. He calls this system Universal Core of Ethics (UCE). He does not claim to have invented UCE; he says its principles have been around for millennia. Thoughtful religions and deep thinkers have already defined UCE in their own way. But we — the people — tend to gloss over these humanistic teachings. Kevin is giving us a modern perspective on ancient knowledge.
When explaining UCE, Kevin has another acronym he likes using: CRES. CRES stands for character, rights, economics, and security. Let me briefly describe each of those four entities.
R is for Rights
Despite the rhetoric around rights, rights are not common sense or agreed on or inalienable. Rights are not always good or effective or universal. When established culturally and/or legally, rights shape our psyche.
And rights are hard to change.
Kevin’s writings conclude that a set of effective rights is important to find a well functioning society.
E is for Economics
Citizens need choices in their personal economics. They need choices of employment. They need choices in what they can consume. The more choices they have, the more contented they are.
With more choices for individuals, individuals will contribute more effort into their society. So society is better run. And a well-run economy then shapes society to give more choices.
S is for Security
Citizens need security in their lives. Systems of justice provide much of that security. Most of our “bad” people have been regulated by the threat of prison time. So many of us can safely assume that most of our days will not be dominated by negative events. With that security, we can focus on positive aspects of life rather than just survival and protection.
C is for Character
I have left the first letter of CRES to the last. Kevin has put Character ahead of Rights, Economics, and Security.
According to Kevin, a society needs political leaders with good character to elevate rights, economics, and security. Once a higher elevation is reached, society better serves its individuals.
But political leaders do change. The next round of political leaders might be not-so-good characters. But because rights, economics, and security have been well established, they tend to hold despite the poor leadership.
If the leadership is not turned around, rights, economics, and security start eroding — and society decays.
Kevin gives many historical examples of his CRES philosophy at work. The link below summarizes Uruguayan history. This country had two great presidents, and with that leadership Uruguay did not fall as deep into the banana republics that had plagued the rest of South America.
https://medium.com/@kmpauley1078/uruguays-example-for-the-rest-of-us-87fa9988f007
This link is unlikely to work unless you are a Medium member.
Our New Political Philosopher
Kevin found me on Medium about eight months ago. He read my TDG book online and had some good questions. Our exchange is here:
https://tiereddemocraticgovernance.org/faq.php?faq_cat_id=4
Since then, I have been reading Kevin’s work on a regular basis.
· He is well read.
· He brings in his life experiences, including being a person with autism.
· He brings in his historical insights.
· He brings in his understanding of psychology and sociology.
· He has been consistent in his explanations.
· He remains humble, often stating that his principles have been around for a long time.
· His writing has improved in this short time. He is more able to get to his points quickly and succinctly.
I believe the potential is there for the world to find a new political philosopher. Kevin has put many pieces of a big puzzle together. The world needs his thinking.
I have been encouraging Kevin to put his UCE, CRES, and the “Zombie Kernel” into a book.
Character and the TDG
In different ways, Kevin and I have concluded the importance of good character for the people taking on roles of governance.
We have had leaders of good character before. Sometimes the elections in western democracies have found them. Sometimes even the oligarchies find these leaders. The problem is the successors to those good leaders. Too often, these successors are compromised individuals, who slowly break down the good things the good leaders have built.
My sense of good character came from six years of being an active volunteer in a Canadian political party. In 1992, I concluded that most voters know so little about the names on the ballot. We have no idea whether the name is an alcoholic, embezzler, or wife beater. We might find out later when these people assume a more public profile. But sometimes the bad things can be kept hidden. If hidden, these negative side issues affect judgment of our political process. The quality of governance is diminished with not-so-good people in charge.
After much pondering, I came up with Tiered Democratic Governance (TDG). This democracy will teach voters to vote for good character. The TDG will filter out people who should not be in governance.
With the TDG, the voters will consistently be finding political leaders of good character. So there is no moving backwards.
I have made voting for good character as a keystone of the TDG. There is no point in building the TDG if it cannot provide this feature.
Kevin has made good character the keystone of his CRES model.
Kevin and I coming to the same conclusion in different ways and different times is not a coincidence. There is a cosmic knowledge out there.
I recommend reading Kevin’s work on Medium. He is way ahead of the political scientists. Hopefully he gets that book written sooner than later.
Published on Medium 2026
The Psychology of a Political Party
