The Populist Signal: Why Politics and Democracy Need to Change by Claudia Chwalisz

Author:Claudia Chwalisz [Chwalisz, Claudia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783485437
Goodreads: 26716881
Publisher: Policy Network
Published: 2015-06-09T00:00:00+00:00

Note

1. The polling for this report was carried out by Ipsos Mori as part of their face-to-face Capibus survey between 20 March and 14 April 2015. The sample size was 1,252. The data were weighted according to demographic profiles in order to achieve an overall representative sample of Great Britain. The weighted base was 961.

DEMOCRATIC INNOVATIONS IN PRACTICE: EXEMPLARY CASE STUDIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Together, old and new institutions are shaping a contact democracy for the 21st century, slowly transforming the hierarchical relationship between ordinary citizens and the elected elites into one that is more reflective of society today. Relationships are much more horizontal; leadership is no longer about making decisions on behalf of people, but about initiating a process in consultation with them. The following case studies demonstrate new forms of engagement that seek to entrench more equal citizen participation to overcome the representation dilemma which is fuelling support for populist parties. With ordinary people feeling like their voices are being ignored by their elected representatives, they have turned to these reactionary forces which claim to represent their concerns and air their grievances. While this pressure on the mainstream to react can be good if it prompts reflection on the state of representative democracy today, it is also harmful if they ignore the underlying drivers of people’s frustration and merely give in to the reactionary and divisive debates.

The following case studies offer a number of examples of varying democratic innovations across western Europe, Australia and Canada. While there are many other experiments happening in other countries across the world, the following examples are highlighted due to their democracies being comparable to the UK, as well as to demonstrate lessons that can be learned from both successful and unsuccessful cases. They are based on semi-structured interviews with key individuals involved in either organising or supporting the initiatives – academics, ministers, and organisers – as well as research about the methodologies used. The case studies are divided into three sections: national and regional level; local level; and constitutional conventions. Together, they highlight how democratic innovations can involve people more directly in political decision-making. How bringing people together to deliberate can build bridges across political and cultural divides (Caluwaerts and Deschower, 2014), emphasising the contact theory argument that interaction between diverse groups breeds social cohesion. In doing so, democratic innovations have the potential to alleviate the underlying drivers of populism: deeply entrenched disillusionment about the power of politics as a force for good.

The quantity of experiments has now reached a point where many of the previously negative assumptions, particularly about the drawing of lots, have been dispelled. The most common critique tends to be about competence. Yet time and time again, deliberative mini-publics have demonstrated that when given the time and the resources to form a balanced opinion, ‘ordinary’ citizens are more than capable of having thoughtful discussions and making balanced judgements. The competence argument only goes so far. Elected politicians are not some sort of superior beings; they have armies of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.