by Patric Chalmers, The Guardian, Saturday 2 July 2016 These are difficult days for democracy. European nations struggle to elect governments on low turnouts. Populists wielding half-truths go from strength to strength. Facts are a devalued currency, personalities never more important. People use ballot boxes to bloody the noses of the political elite. Young people...
Media
A Call to Australians to Donate to Democracy, Sydney Morning Herald 2 July 2016
Sydney Morning Herald | Comment | July 2, 2016 In Australia, our cities are gleaming, our beaches glowing, and our politics pathetic. Cheap point scoring and sloganeering have become hallmarks of modern democracy, yet many people are turned off by these antics. But it’s no one’s fault. It’s systemic. We’ve all been weaned on...Continue reading
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...
Weatherill is right to seek a “social licence” on nuclear industry
Criticism of the State Government’s decision to turn to citizens’ juries for advice on our nuclear future overlooks the importance of gaining a “social licence” for such a momentous decision, writes Nathan Paine. The long-awaited release of the Royal Commission’s Report into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle was an important step on the road to a...Continue reading
Luca Belgiorno Nettis | And they’re off, but does anyone really care?
In Australia, it took the best part of a century for Labor to prove itself. It was up to Bob Hawke and Paul Keating to demonstrate, decisively, that Labor could prosecute responsible government. We could hardly believe it. The socialists crafted a free enterprise platform for a sustained period of economic growth: floating the dollar,...Continue reading
The Mandarin | VicHealth’s citizens’ jury lessons: no censorship, impartiality
“The fundamental proposition of a citizens’ jury is that, when given a clear remit, adequate time and unfettered access to information, a group of representative citizens are capable of arriving at a sensible position that broadly reflects the views of the wider population,” the report argues. “Neutrality of information is critical to success. This means...Continue reading
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,...
Luca Belgiorno-Nettis. Democracy flounders in a sea of voter discontent
Since the 1970s, the major political parties have seen their power slip as the ground moves from underneath them. Growing affluence, education/media access and discredited ideologies have helped tipped the balance in favour of the people. Yet the parties still lurch from one election to the next; forever hopeful that, out of the inane contest,...Continue reading
Sydney lockout: A groundswell of opinion isn’t the considered view of the silent majority
Luca Belgiorno-Nettis, Sydney Morning Herald. Comment. 17 February 2016. The silent majority don’t speak unless spoken to, and when they’re “consulted” in polling or focus groups, no real opportunity is afforded for deliberation. They get asked opinions for two minutes, but rarely a considered view after learning more deeply about an issue. In December 2013,...Continue reading