About NFI

The New Franchise Institute (NFI) is a membership organization. Any American or citizen of another country who is 18 years or older and who shares our goals, may join NFI, simply by registering in person, or by mail, or by signing up on our web site. Organizations may also become members of NFI. There is no set membership fee. Those who join are invited to donate whatever they can at the time when they join or whenever they are able. A record of such donations will be available for inspection at our offices. That support is important and necessary. Some individual or organization members may donate their services, or skills such as web design, or resources such as equipment or office space. We appreciate that a ten dollar (US) donation may be equivalent to a month's salary in another country. Thus, to encourage international participation, we have chosen to eliminate the membership fee.

Who is Behind NFI?

NFI is a private, independent, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization based in the United States. It is governed by a Board of Directors, a majority of whom are American citizens. Some of the founders are naturalized Americans who have first-hand experiences with undemocratic and corrupt regimes in their native lands. These founders also know, first-hand in some cases, that the "stick and carrot" approach, which the U. S. government often employs to promote democracy around the world, tends to alienate many of the governments that we seek to change. Many countries are insulted when they feel they are being dictated to, and they find our "stick and carrot" approach paternalistic. Developing countries, in particular, often perceive some of our political prescriptions as directed from the top-down, or North- to -South, or Western-to-Non-Western, or White - to-Non-White, or rich -to-poor. They argue that the cultural context of their democracy is sometimes misunderstood or unappreciated by the West.

From the standpoint of the United States, our ability to influence how our financial aid is used is limited, and our "stick" approach (whether in the form of economic sanctions or diplomatic isolation), is sometimes undermined by other countries, including some of our allies.

Read On . . .

The founders of The New Franchise Institute, Inc. have developed a strategy of global democratization that requires a democratic UN in order to be effective. Such a UN would, most probably, differ markedly from the current UN in its governing structure and in the voting patterns in the General Assembly. With a democratic UN in place, global democratization would no longer be America's responsibility alone. It would become the world's responsibility. Such a change would make it feasible for governments to change their political practices to conform to world standards, without losing face.

At the heart of the Institute's long-range strategy are two innovations in the conception of democracy:

1. that democracy is measured better by outcomes than by process or structure, and
2. that the proven success in the application of incentives in economics, can be replicated in democracy.

This new concept of democracy can be implemented through what NFI calls the Incentive-Based Franchise (IBF) System:- a method of assigning weights to the votes of member states in the United Nations. These weighted votes measure each member state's degree of compliance with values which the international community shares. These shared values have been codified in various international treaties and conventions, including:

• The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties Between States and International Organizations or Between International Organizations, as amended, which came into force in 1980.
• The Convention Concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour, as Modified by the Final Articles Revision Convention of 1946.
• The Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery of December 1953.
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly Resolution 217A (III) of December 10, 1948.
• The Convention Concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize which came into force in July 1950.
• The Convention on the Political Rights of Women which came into force in July 1954.
• The International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (1966), and
• The International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1976. Part I, section 1.1 of this Convention states: "All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development."
  
  Section 3 provides that " The States Parties to the present Covenant, including those having responsibility for the administration of Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories, shall promote the realization of the right of self-determination, and shall respect that right, in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations."
  
  Part II, Article 2.2 of the same Convention provides that "The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to guarantee that the rights enunciated in the present Covenant will be exercised without discrimination of any kind as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."
  
  Article 4 of Part II requires that "The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize that, in the enjoyment of those rights provided by the State in conformity with the present Covenant, the State may subject such rights only to such limitations as are determined by law only in so far as this may be compatible with the nature of these rights and solely for the purpose of promoting the general welfare in a democratic society."

The IBF concept is the brainchild of Dr. S. L. Mhlaba. For a review of the first draft of the IBF System, click HERE. For the list of Board members click as indicated. For a list of NFI's International Board of Advisors click as indicated.