Power to the People
Discussions about e-democracy usually start from the perspective that the UK (and other western societies) is suffering from a drop in electoral participation and poor levels of trust in political institutions and politicians. The Power Inquiry, an independent inquiry into Britain’s democracy, has published its final report and recommendations.
The Executive Summary doesn’t explicitly recommend an expansion of e-democracy processes, though it does recommend “creating a culture of political engagement in which it becomes the norm for policy and decision-making to occur with direct input from citizens”. ICT can facilitate this, as we will discuss in our first ICT Foresight report on democracy, campaigning and advocacy.
Paul Miller and David Wilcox have already blogged about the report elsewhere. David thinks the whole process was a bit top-down:
Where did the recommendations come from? How did the Commission move from analysis of evidence to recommendation? It took six months…. but how? Was it a matter of the staff and advisers drafting and redrafting, running Commission meetings and away-days? Or were there some procedures by which emerging ideas were tested back with those who submitted evidence? I couldn’t see anything in the report about that … though it may well be in the backup material, and the conference will provide an opportunity to find out more… Anyway, if it was an entirely internal process it does, for me, raise a question about whether the Commission is walking the talk, practising what it preaches, and so on. Is it really “downloading power” - as it advocates - or is it simply offering JACE - Just Another Consultation Exercise?
Paul thinks they’ve performed a valuable role by raising awareness of the problem and is looking to the future:
The question that I’m now turning to is what comes next. I think we need to accept that political parties are never going to be as dynamic and vibrant as they were in the 1950s and 60s and that voting is only a part of democratic life. As Paul Ginsborg points out, “we will perhaps vote (an activity of some three minutes) 12 times at a national level and the same number at a local one - some 72 minutes in all, perhaps one-third of the television viewing we do daily.” What I’m interested in is people who are taking democracy into their own hands. People who are delivering democratic outcomes outside of formal politics by either taking decisions or delivering services themselves.
Meanwhile, mysociety have developed a site that allows people to comment on the Power Inquiry recommendations.