Comprehensive Theory of Self-Determination
Support
The citizen as subject
In a self-determination-based republic, the citizen is not part of a mass governed by the state, but a determining participant in public life. The citizen has judgment, rights, duties, and a role through which public decisions become the responsibility of society as well as authority.
A self-aware and thinking citizen
The citizen must understand their position, interests, values, and fears in order not to act in public life only under influence. They distinguish fact from propaganda, personal judgment from group pressure, and a real problem from information noise.
Participation as co-creation
Participation is not only voting. A citizen participates when they help shape public agendas, develop local and professional environments, discuss public questions, and co-create solutions. A participating citizen helps formulate the problem and the language of solution.
A supervising and questioning citizen
A republic requires a citizen who can understand institutional decisions, demand accountability, and follow the use of public resources. Oversight here is not mere suspicion or protest; it is responsible questioning that keeps the state within public meaning and law.
A citizen protected from manipulation
A citizen cannot be self-determined if constantly governed by fear, disinformation, dependence, or false choices. The republic must develop media literacy, legal protection, a minimum of economic autonomy, and a quality of public discussion that preserves the source of decision.
A citizen carrying responsibility
Self-determination-based politics does not see the citizen only as a claimant. Freedom is joined to duty, criticism to creative participation, and rights to public responsibility. A citizen becomes a republican subject when they can say not only what they demand from the state, but what responsibility they assume for the common future.
A co-authoring society
When the citizen is not only a voter but a co-author of public life, the republic becomes not a system governed from above, but a political environment built together. In such a society, the state does not replace the citizen, and the citizen does not abandon their share of public life.