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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newDemocracy News | December 2015
Ideas, not Ideology The turmoil of the Civil War in 17th century England was the crucible for great political and philosophical upheavals. John Locke’s Enlightenment ideas of individual freedom and the importance of scientific (i.e. rational) thinking changed forever the way people looked at themselves with respect to their government. It was the Enlightenment ideals which...Continue reading
Governments have lost the art of involving the people
Premier Jay Weatherill | Democracy Renewal Forum Governments have lost the art of involving the people Democracy is not in crisis – it is just that governments have lost the art of talking to people about their concerns and involving them in the solutions. When Australians can still vote in free elections and influence government decision-making...Continue reading
What the bee can teach us about running a democracy
Luca Belgiorno-Nettis | SMH Comment Planning for human hives – our cities – could be strengthened by adopting the wise ways of bees. When honeybees move their hive, scouts “waggle dance” to persuade the swarm of the merits of the new location. “One of the popular misconceptions about honey bees is that they are ruled by...
Doing democracy differently
Very quietly and far from the headlines, Canada has become something of a global leader in democratic innovation and experimentation. Here’s a good news story for anyone exhausted at the prospect of our current 77-day federal election and anxious about the health of Canadian democracy. You might never know it watching the endless reels of...Continue reading
Connecting citizens to legislative deliberations: public engagement in committees
Authors: Carolyn M. Hendriks, The Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU and Adrian Kay, The Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU Abstract: Many parliaments around the world are undergoing a ‘participatory makeover’. Legislative institutions are opening their doors to the public through open days and communicating the latest ‘parliamentary updates’ via websites and social media. Many...Continue reading
VicHealth – Victoria’s Citizens’ Jury on Obesity (2015)
Obesity policy and how to respond is a challenging area for governments around the world. The current situation leads to billions of dollars in care costs borne by the state and its citizens, but efforts to change this rarely survive the test of the daily headlines. Food is at once something we all understand, and...Continue reading
newDemocracy News | September 2015
The current state of politics in Australia – a glass half full or half empty perspective? Is Australia politically or culturally capable of dealing with the ‘wicked’ problems it is facing? Wicked problems – complex but intractable issues that get pushed aside for fear of their potential political damage; problems that must be resolved but...
2015 newDemocracy Research Funding
Decisiveness; student governance in Bolivia; Segolene Royal’s notion of having 24 people oversight their MP’s behaviour; mini-publics in practice. The link between these diverse topics is that they are each the subject of ground-breaking research following the announcement of 2015 Research Grants from the New Democracy Foundation. The Foundation’s Research Committee has awarded funding to...Continue reading
Stagnation erodes trust in democratic political institutions
As published on SMH on 25 August 2015 It has long been an axiom of government that the key to success is trust. As long ago as Confucius it was held that three things were needed for government – weapons, food and trust – but that if a ruler could not hang on to all three, they must guard trust to the...Continue reading