Claim. Joint government under the principle of mutual prosperity is not democracy but “government of the brothers and sisters, by the brothers and sisters, and for the brothers and sisters, centered on the True Parents of humankind” — a fraternal democracy in which all participants relate as siblings attending the Messiah.
Elaboration. Lee proposes mutual prosperity as the political form of the post-messianic ideal society, explicitly distinguished from liberal democracy (B. Principle of Mutual Prosperity). It retains joint participation through elected representatives but reconstitutes the relations among participants in three specific ways:
First, candidates relate not as rivals but as brothers and sisters jointly attending the Messiah, the representative of God, as the true-parents of humankind. Second, candidates do not nominate themselves out of personal ambition but stand only on the recommendation of neighbors — “by the will of others” — since siblings centered on true love make mutual recommendations. Third, the election procedure itself is reformed: a preliminary election in the first stage is followed by selection by lottery in the second stage, accompanied by solemn prayer and formality. The lottery mechanism is meant to eliminate the enormous expenditure of money that currently corrupts elections, and to provide assurance that the outcome aligns with God’s will so all parties — elected, unelected, and the broader people — can accept it with gratitude.
Lee then explicitly reframes Lincoln’s formula: government of/by/for the people becomes government of/by/for the brothers and sisters, centered on the True Parents. This is “fraternal democracy.” The brotherhood meant here is universal — a single global family attending the True Parents — not the ethnic or national brotherhoods that currently restrict democratic ideals. Lee identifies two reasons universal brotherhood has not been realized: world unification has not yet been accomplished, and the True Parents had not yet appeared.
This is a remarkable theological-political construction: legitimate authority flows not from the people’s sovereignty but from kinship under True Parents. Critics from liberal political theory will engage on whether lottery selection plus mutual recommendation can scale, and whether the “universal brotherhood under True Parents” framing is compatible with religious pluralism. Lee partly insulates the claim by allowing partial realization “to some extent” even before world unification, if world leaders are willing to attend God as True Parents — a temporary palliative until the full system arrives.
See also. democracy-as-providential-preparation-for-second-advent, mutual-existence-joint-ownership-grounded-in-true-love, three-great-subjects-parents-teacher-leader