This isn't democracy
All over the world the public are totally disillusioned with democracy, and who can blame us.
Most democratic governments are totally beholden to corporate interests, whose blind adherence to neoliberalism has destroyed our standards of living and more importantly, the planet.
Politicians in the US may need to raise $75,000USD a day to win an election, and therefore spend most of their time garnering donations.
Because of this, when economic elites or interest groups support a policy there is roughly a 30% increase in the likelihood of that policy being implemented. But when a general member of the public supports a policy, there is no increase in the likelihood that the policy would be implemented. None.
Moreover, most governments are barely representative of the public due to electoral systems that simply do not work anymore, but are enforced by major parties who cling onto power.
In the UK, the current government was elected on 33% of the vote with a turnout of approximately 60% - meaning only about 20% of the voters in the UK actually voted for the government.
And all over the world, populists and fascists are using the failures of democracy to oppress minorities and further concentrate wealth and power in the hands of comic book villains.
Many are justifiably asking if democracy is the best way to get out of our current hellscape.
But we shouldn’t have to give up our rights and freedoms (if we have any left) to authoritarians to get out of this mess.
There are many ways to do democracy better.
Deliberative, Participatory and Digital Democracy
You’ve probably heard of deliberative or participatory democracy and they are what they sound like - political decisions should be the results of (inclusive and quality) public participation and deliberation rather than simply majority voting every few years.
There are countless examples of successful deliberative democracy innovations.
Likely the most famous early adopter of deliberative democracy methods was Ireland, with major outcomes of citizens assemblies in the 2010’s.
Citizens assemblies involve the selection of a representative sample of the general public to deliberate and come to a recommendation on a certain policy, often guided by experts.
The Irish Constitutional Convention of 2013/14 brought 66 members of the public together from across the country with 33 politicians and an expert advisory panel to deliberate many issues, but the most infamous was on amending the constitution to enable same-sex marriage.
As with citizens assemblies more generally, the Irish convention involved presentations from experts and civil society groups, small group deliberations, Q&A with the expert advisory panels and a final vote.
The convention voted to recommend a constitutional change to include same-sex marriage, which was ultimately approved by the public in a referenda.
The convention was widely seen as a success and Ireland has legislated for a permanent citizens assembly.
One of the most successful examples of participatory democracy is the participatory budgeting (PB) of many local or regional governments in Brazil, most notably in Porto Alegre.
PB started in Porto Alegre in 1989 and without getting into the nitty gritty, the process involves citizens of the public in the decision making on the municipalities spending priorities.
The outcomes of the initial PB project in Porto Alegre from 1989-1996 are well-documented and undeniably positive:
Those with access to basic sanitation increased from 49% to 89%
The number of students enrolled in school doubled
Public housing provision increased from 1,700 people to 27,000
Health and education spending increased from just 13% of the budget to 40%.
PB is still running in Porto Alegre and at one point PB was used in over 240 municipalities in Brazil.
Deliberative and participatory democratic methods have also been implemented through digital means, expanding and easing access for the public.
For example, in São Paulo, an online platform allows the public to submit and vote on a certain proportion of the city’s budget. The city has allocated around $60 million (USD) per year for citizen initiated projects.
This platform resembles the digital democracy innovations implemented by Estonia, who have long been the leader in bringing deliberative and participatory democracy measures online.
Estonia has many “e-democracy” measures, but certainly the most famous is the “People’s Initiative” (Rahvaalgatus.ee).
This platform enables citizens to propose a policy and once it receives support from 1,000 people (or 1% of a local municipality) it is immediately sent to the relevant level of government who must consider the policy.
As with the citizens assembly in Ireland, a petition from this platform lead directly to the government legalising same-sex marriage.
These are just some examples of how democracy can still work outside of failed institutions and corporate interests. Many more examples can be found on Participedia.
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What’s potentially most important about these innovations is that they disconnect politicians and broken political institutions from corporate interests and put the people back at the centre of policy-making.
There is no more important time than now to strengthen our democracies and bring the public back into decision making.
The overwhelming majority of the world’s population, for some time now, support stronger action on the ecological crisis and it’s time that political institutions let us solve this crisis.
End Citizens United in the U.S. Make elections a public institution by getting the money out.
Thank you for bringing this information to my attention. I plan to do further research and perhaps approach my local municipality on such processes. These ideas implemented around the country could be a game changer.