Shadow Election's main aims are:
- Make democratic participation more engaging.
- Level out political playing fields around the world.
- Create an overview of global political opinion.
We believe these are important because politics effects our lives at every level, and we should avoid leaving the process in the hands of "career" politicians – whose motivations can be swayed towards securing their own party's victory, or to personal advancement, rather than the common good.
Around the world we see many viable candidates excluded from the public debate, as they simply can't compete with the funding resources and media influence secured by a few dominant parties.
This is particularly evident in the two party domination of USA politics, but also extends to many other countries, like Kenya for example, where candidates have vastly different resources to exercise political, financial or media influence.
Even in Finland (our home base), which is ranked among the best democracies in the world, there is no room for complacency. The scale of the democratic problems might be different, but the underlying problems are similar.
The necessity to secure enough funding can lead even the most stouthearted to be subdued by the potentially corrupting influence of corporations, lobbying groups, and mainstream media biases.
Now that the world has become so integrated, what happens in one nation effects others more rapidly and directly than ever before. So in the long-run Shadow Election will endevour to capture the global political opinions on universal issues.
And "eventually" (if we prove our worth in many individual countries) we will consider the idea of running a global election to nominate a Shadow Election World President – who would hopefully represent the voice of a significant group of globally concerned citizens.
Practical goals
The Shadow Election team is driven by a passion for democracy, and we accept the necessity to believe naively that we can change the world; however, our professional experiences are diverse and we are sufficiently battle scared to understand the need to achieve these aims one practical goal at a time.This is the reason why we are continually exploring new ways to make the functions of Shadow Election as simple as possible.
We have a long journey ahead and thank all those who have supported us so far.
