There are better ways to decide the big issues than referendums

INSIGHT 6 June 2016 They seem democratic but referendums are flawed. If we want people involved in the political process, there are smarter ways to go about it, says Niall Firth Referendums are “a splendid weapon for demagogues and dictators”, argued Margaret Thatcher in a debate over Britain’s place in the EU in 1975. Was that...Continue reading

Citizen juries & new democracy: Farrelly, Doyle, Walker, Belgiorno-Nettis, Brokman

By Sandra Edmunds, The Fifth Estate | 9 June 2016 Special Report: With development rampant across major Australian cities, many residents feel like they’ve lost a say in what happens to their communities. Public consultation seems token, and deals appear to be stitched up before concerned citizens can put in their two cents. Communities are...

Why not select politicians as randomly as jurists?

From Sydney Morning Herald. April 18, 2016. Legislatures, and the elections that populate them, have so many flaws that we might be better off picking our representatives at random. Before you chuckle, first consider how far we in the US have come since April 1776, when John Adams wrote that a legislature should be “in miniature,...

Power and gardens for the people

Athens can teach us a lot about real democracy – not the weasel democracy practised so often, British classics scholar Robin Lane Fox tells Kevin Chinnery.

What can the UK learn from Australian Democratic Innovation

As part of Policy Network’s work on democratic innovation and renewal, in partnership with the Barrow Cadbury Trust, Policy Network discusses Australian democratic innovations, and how the UK can learn from them. Panellists Luca Belgiorno-Nettis, Alison McGovern, Claudia Chwalisz, Jeremy Purvis and Shahrar Ali discussed the potential for citizens’ juries and assemblies in the UK, and...Continue reading

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