tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/deliberative-democracy-22687/articlesdeliberative democracy – The Conversation2024-02-07T18:53:42Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2205292024-02-07T18:53:42Z2024-02-07T18:53:42ZDemocratic organizations struggle with democracy, too. Here’s what they can do about it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573165/original/file-20240203-23-76obv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C23%2C5168%2C3422&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">While mini-publics have been capitalized on by governments around the world, their potential has been overlooked by member-based organizations. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8292.2004.00242.x">Democratic member-based organizations</a> like labour unions, co-operatives, student unions and recreational clubs play profound roles in society. </p>
<p>Whether building community, driving social change or grappling with shared challenges around work, childcare and learning, these organizations offer opportunities to <a href="https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/edcoll/9781788114905/9781788114905.00024.xml">advance members’ interests</a> through localized democracy. </p>
<p>The promise they hold is hinted at by their scale. In Canada, for example, labour unions represent <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/36-28-0001/2022011/article/00001-eng.htm">almost a third</a> of Canadian workers, and there are over <a href="https://coops4dev.coop/sites/default/files/2020-11/Canada%20-%20Key%20Figures%20Report_0.pdf">19 million active memberships</a> in Canada’s more than 6,500 co-operatives.</p>
<p>Yet despite their representative reputations, these organizations often struggle to maintain vibrant, effective democracy. In the final years of Mountain Equipment Co-Op’s (MEC) existence, for example, only about <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4199502">one per cent of members</a> chose to vote in elections as the organization <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-mec-debacle-is-a-predictable-and-avoidable-governance-failure-146513">deprioritized member participation</a> in favour of business objectives. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the University of Toronto Students’ Union, representing <a href="https://www.utsu.ca/">over 41,000 members</a>, has <a href="https://thevarsity.ca/2019/11/10/participation-in-student-government-elections-at-u-of-t-among-lowest-in-canada/">struggled with voter turnout</a>, unfilled elected positions and achieving quorum — the minimum threshold of participation for valid decisions — at its general meetings.</p>
<p>Rethinking how these organizations involve members is essential to sustaining their democratic credentials. Our research suggests that participatory processes called deliberative mini-publics can be a key part of the solution.</p>
<h2>Challenges with achieving democracy</h2>
<p>Democratic member-based organizations commonly <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781487520335/understanding-the-social-economy/">structure their democracy</a> around two core bodies: an elected board of directors and general assemblies open to the entire membership. On paper, each of these bodies has <a href="https://management-aims.com/index.php/mgmt/article/view/8478">significant responsibilities</a>. </p>
<p>General assemblies’ responsibilities often include holding the board accountable, discussing shared concerns and proposing and agreeing on resolutions. Those of the board of directors often include overseeing the organization’s management, preparing items for consideration at the general assembly and implementing approved decisions.</p>
<p>The problems encountered with this structure at Mountain Equipment Co-Op and the University of Toronto Students’ Union, however, are not aberrations. Our research across <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2022.2111551">student unions</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3526-2">labour unions</a> and <a href="https://management-aims.com/index.php/mgmt/article/view/8478">co-operatives</a> suggest they are widespread in democratic organizations.</p>
<p>With co-operatives, for example, boards of directors often fail to mirror the diversity of the broader membership and sometimes make decisions that do not reflect members’ interests. </p>
<p>At a typical general assembly, only a small and often unrepresentative subset of the membership will likely be present. Those attending may find few genuine opportunities to learn from and discuss issues with others. This, in turn, can lead to decisions that are poorly informed or overly influenced by the board of directors or management.</p>
<h2>Mini-publics as a promising solution</h2>
<p>Our research on these different types of democratic member-based organizations has explored how the thoughtful use of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/680078">deliberative mini-publics</a> could help them improve their internal democracy. </p>
<p>A mini-public brings together a microcosm of a particular population — selected through a <a href="https://participedia.net/method/154">democratic lottery</a> — to learn and deliberate about one or more topics in a supported environment. The outputs of these deliberations can offer direction to decision-makers and other stakeholders.</p>
<p>Take one example we were both involved in: in 2021, the School of Law at Queen Mary University of London convened the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-law-in-context/article/deliberative-experience-and-the-civic-aspirations-of-legal-education/FF6F4A513908F8C82A0D4A3D670AFF5C">Students’ Jury on Pandemic Learning</a>. Twelve students were selected through a stratified lottery that accounted for self-identified characteristics like gender, fee status and race.</p>
<p>Through five intensive sessions, these students engaged with subject matter experts and interested parties, and participated in facilitated discussions. These efforts culminated in <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/law/media/law/docs/undergrad/QM-Students'-Jury-Final-Report---March-2021.pdf">13 recommendations</a> that were collectively ratified and shared with the school’s leadership.</p>
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<img alt="A diverse group of people sitting around a table and having a conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572942/original/file-20240201-17-z1kxnp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572942/original/file-20240201-17-z1kxnp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572942/original/file-20240201-17-z1kxnp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572942/original/file-20240201-17-z1kxnp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572942/original/file-20240201-17-z1kxnp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572942/original/file-20240201-17-z1kxnp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572942/original/file-20240201-17-z1kxnp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A mini-public brings together a microcosm of a particular population to learn about key topics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>Initiatives like this can go a long way towards <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2022.2111551">overcoming a number of democratic member-based organizations’ challenges</a>. Compared to self-selected general assemblies and elected boards of directors, mini-publics’ use of lotteries engages significantly more diverse groups of participants. </p>
<p>Access to expert insights and stakeholders’ lived experience helps ensure that a wide range of relevant perspectives are brought to participants’ discussions and decisions. Facilitators help ensure that participants’ discussions are inclusive and on point. </p>
<p>As a result, their judgements are more likely to be well reasoned, thoughtful and balanced. Participants can also <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-law-in-context/article/deliberative-experience-and-the-civic-aspirations-of-legal-education/FF6F4A513908F8C82A0D4A3D670AFF5C">emerge with new skills</a>, confidence and a heightened desire to contribute to the organization in other ways.</p>
<h2>Making use of mini-publics</h2>
<p>While mini-publics have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-020-00284-9">capitalized on by governments</a> around the world, their potential has typically been <a href="https://futuregovernance.info/">overlooked by member-based organizations</a>. Yet there are <a href="https://management-aims.com/index.php/mgmt/article/view/8478">many ways these organizations could use them</a> to complement their existing board of directors and general assembly.</p>
<p>First, mini-publics could be used to evaluate specific resolutions regarding strategic plans, financial and sustainability reports and nominees for the board of directors. Their conclusions would be shared with the broader membership to inform their votes at general assemblies. </p>
<p>Second, they could be used to assess the board’s performance and offer feedback to ensure decisions are responsive to the needs of the membership. </p>
<p>Third, mini-publics could be used to unearth shared concerns on topics that have not yet received enough attention by the board of directors, such as the implications of artificial intelligence for their activities.</p>
<p>Whether in these ways or others, mini-publics can help revitalize the democracy in democratic member-based organizations. In doing so, they can help realize the aspirations that drive people all over the world to join these organizations in the first place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220529/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Pek's contributions to the research projects referred to in this article are partially funded through his President's Chair award. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey Kennedy was formerly at Queen Mary, University of London's School of Law as a Senior Lecturer, with relevant work there funded by internal grants, including the QM Impact Fund Award and Westfield Fund for Enhancing the Student Experience Grant. </span></em></p>Mini-publics, a type of participatory process, can help revitalize democracy in democratic member-based organizations.Simon Pek, Associate Professor of Business and Society, Gustavson School of Business, University of VictoriaJeffrey Kennedy, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2216992024-01-29T17:34:59Z2024-01-29T17:34:59ZWhat Canada can learn from Ireland on citizen engagement to bolster democracy<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/what-canada-can-learn-from-ireland-on-citizen-engagement-to-bolster-democracy" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Canadian democracy is under pressure. Recent challenges have ranged from Ottawa’s so-called <a href="https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/idUSRTS593FA/">Freedom Convoy</a> protests in 2022, which resulted in the federal government invoking the Emergencies Act (unjustifiably, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/emergencies-act-federal-court-1.7091891">according to a recent court ruling</a>), to Ontario’s enactment of legislation reducing the size of Toronto City Council during <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2021/2021scc34/2021scc34.html">the 2018 municipal election</a>. </p>
<p>Perhaps most worrying, however, is the <a href="https://www.policymagazine.ca/canadas-growing-problem-with-trust-in-government/">consistent trend</a> that shows citizens are increasingly disillusioned with their democratic institutions. </p>
<p>This is a moment that calls out for democratic renewal. In the search for inspiration for methods of re-engaging citizens, Canada might look to Ireland. </p>
<h2>Irish inspiration</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07907184.2018.1534832">Ireland has become a trailblazer</a> internationally for integrating citizens’ assemblies into its democratic process. Citizens’ assemblies are a form of what are known as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1sr6gw9">deliberative mini-publics</a>,” representative samples of ordinary citizens who deliberate together and make proposals for reform. </p>
<p>Modern examples of deliberative mini-publics stem from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/08/us/politics/robert-a-dahl-dies-at-98-defined-politics-and-power.html">American political scientist Robert Dahl’s</a> idea of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199547944.003.0002">what he called “minipopulus”</a> in which a random cohort of citizens is tasked with deliberating on an issue with the assistance of experts. Ideally, it then produces a reasoned judgment on the best policies to pursue. </p>
<p>The judgments of the minipopulus, Dahl argued, would represent the views of the wider community if it was given the opportunity to access the best knowledge available and engage in a deliberative process. In other words, the legitimacy of the minipopulus’s views would derive from the legitimacy of democracy itself.</p>
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<p>One of the world’s first citizens’ assemblies took place in Canada in 2004, in the form of the <a href="https://participedia.net/case/1">British Columbia Citizens’ Assembly</a> which deliberated on electoral reform. It set the model for the subsequent <a href="https://participedia.net/case/46">Ontario Citizens’ Assembly</a> on the same subject in 2007. </p>
<p>In each case, the assembly’s recommendations were put to referendum, but in neither case did the referendum pass. The momentum around citizens’ assemblies in Canada has since faded.</p>
<h2>Irish abortion laws</h2>
<p>The Irish experience has been different. Citizens’ assemblies in Ireland began in 2012 in response to public distrust of elite institutions following <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/great-recession/">the 2008 recession.</a> </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.constitutionalconvention.ie">Constitutional Convention</a> — an assembly including both elected representatives and ordinary citizens — was mandated to make recommendations on a range of matters, from marriage equality to the voting age. </p>
<p>In 2016, the Irish government established the first <a href="https://citizensassembly.ie/overview-previous-assemblies/2016-2018-citizens-assembly/">citizens’ assembly</a> composed entirely of randomly selected citizens. Its first topic was Ireland’s constitutional position on abortion. </p>
<p>Abortion was an explosive issue in Ireland since the controversial insertion of a 1983 amendment to the country’s constitution that effectively banned abortion in most circumstances. Public demand for a referendum on the issue had been building, and the government’s decision to establish a citizens’ assembly was criticized by some as a stalling tactic.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the assembly <a href="https://citizensassembly.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/FirstReport_EIGHTAMENDMENT.pdf">ultimately recommended</a> a radical liberalization of the law to allow for abortion without restriction for the first time in Irish history. </p>
<p>Following the resounding referendum result in favour of this proposal, lawmakers enacted a new legislative framework, based around the model recommended by the assembly — an extraordinary example of tangible mini-public impact on a landmark legal reform.</p>
<h2>Not a silver bullet</h2>
<p>Of course, not all citizen processes are so impactful. Indeed, the Irish Citizens’ Assembly has produced recommendations on other topics that have not achieved the same — or any — uptake. </p>
<p>But since 2016, citizens’ assemblies have started to become part of the architecture of constitutional and policy change in Ireland. Since 2020, assemblies have taken place on <a href="https://citizensassembly.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/report-of-the-citizens-assembly-on-gender-equality.pdf">gender equality</a>, <a href="https://citizensassembly.ie/wp-content/uploads/ReportonBiodiversityLoss.pdf">biodiversity</a>, <a href="https://citizensassembly.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/report_dublincitizensassembly_final_lowres.pdf">models of local government</a> and <a href="https://citizensassembly.ie/assembly-on-drugs-use/recommendations/">drug use</a>. It remains to be seen how or if the recommendations will eventually result in constitutional or legislative changes.</p>
<p>Citizens’ assemblies are not a silver bullet — their impact depends on the appetite of politicians to implement their recommendations and many other factors. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-an-eu-citizens-assembly-could-help-to-renew-european-democracy-98894">How an EU citizens' assembly could help to renew European democracy</a>
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<p>There is, however, a strong case for revisiting citizens’ assemblies in Canada, not least the significant contemporary challenges facing Canadian democracy. The perceived failings of prior Canadian experiments with citizens’ assemblies are no reason to abandon these efforts. </p>
<p>The disappointing outcomes of the referendums that followed those processes were not attributable to a failure of citizens to deliberate and agree on reform; the reasons for failure were many, both legal and political. </p>
<p>By all accounts, the participants in those assemblies showed <a href="https://cpsa-acsp.ca/papers-2008/Leduc.pdf">enthusiasm and energy</a> at becoming engaged in shaping their country’s values.</p>
<h2>Canadian opportunities</h2>
<p>A raft of areas of law in Canada are now in need of reform. The federal government has <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2023/02/government-of-canada-appoints-president-and-commissioners-to-the-law-commission-of-canada.html">outlined a range of priorities</a> for the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/law-commission-canada.html">Law Commission of Canada</a>, including racism in the law, reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, access to justice, climate change and technological changes. </p>
<p>The Irish experience has shown that citizens are capable not only of deliberating on broad constitutional issues, but technical legislative matters too. </p>
<p>What’s more, citizens’ assemblies can serve a particularly important role when elected representatives have a vested interest. That includes on topics like electoral reform because it may be unrealistic to expect politicians to substantially reform a system that resulted in their election in the first place. Citizens have no such conflicts.</p>
<p>Canada has so far avoided the more extreme attacks on democracy witnessed by its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/01/04/us/january-6-capitol-trump-investigation.html">nearest neighbour</a>, the United States. In the face of declining public participation, however, there is no room for complacency. A fresh approach to citizen engagement is an exciting prospect, worthy of serious consideration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Seána Glennon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As Canada’s nearest neighbour grapples with serious attacks on democracy, a fresh approach to citizen engagement in Canada is an exciting prospect, worthy of serious consideration.Seána Glennon, Doctoral Fellow, Constitutional Law, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2088982023-07-24T16:09:43Z2023-07-24T16:09:43ZHow citizens could help government with emergency decisions in the next pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537340/original/file-20230713-19-iqrpyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C7337%2C4912&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/people-meeting-seminar-office-concept-529907086">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK’s <a href="https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/">COVID inquiry</a> is putting pandemic policymaking under the microscope. One of the key questions is who should make decisions in an emergency, and how.</p>
<p>In a government committee hearing before the inquiry began, Dominic Cummings, former chief adviser to Boris Johnson, suggested a “<a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/2249/pdf/">kind of dictator</a>” should be in charge in such times of crisis, relying on the guidance of a small group of scientific and mathematical experts.</p>
<p>But as former chancellor George Osborne pointed out in <a href="https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/20184557/C-19-Inquiry-20-June-23-Module-1-Day-6.pdf">his testimony</a> to the inquiry, expert advice isn’t necessarily enough on its own. Even the most detailed expert analysis won’t tell us whether we should close schools to protect vulnerable residents in care homes. These are questions about what we value as a society. </p>
<p><a href="https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/13182335/C-19-Inquiry-13-July-23-Module-1-Day-20.pdf">Melanie Field</a>, executive director of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has mentioned the involvement of members of the public in these decisions. She gave the example of the Welsh government using online platforms to consult with people with certain characteristics protected under the Equality Act. </p>
<p>But discussion of public involvement in pandemic decision-making has been minimal during the inquiry so far. As a bioethicist who has worked on public deliberation, I believe ordinary citizens should be a made an active part of policymaking in the next pandemic.</p>
<h2>Engaging the public</h2>
<p>Deliberative democracy is the process of engaging a cross-section of the public in <a href="https://carnegieeurope.eu/2019/11/26/new-wave-of-deliberative-democracy-pub-80422">making decisions</a>. A group of citizens learns, discusses, deliberates and makes policy recommendations in bodies like citizens’ juries and larger citizens’ assemblies.</p>
<p>These can engage up to <a href="https://involve.org.uk/citizens-assembly-tracker">over 100 citizens</a> and make recommendations on a variety of topics. To date citizens have deliberated on issues from <a href="https://involve.org.uk/resources/methods/participatory-budgeting">local budgets</a>, to how to deal with the <a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-climate-assembly-research-report-process-impact-assembly-member-experience/">climate crisis</a>, to the ethics of <a href="https://www.globalca.org/">genome editing</a> and <a href="https://www.cndp.us/citizens-juries-artificial-intelligence/#:%7E:text=Jurors%20were%20charged%20with%20exploring,make%20its%20decisions%20less%20accurate.">artificial intelligence</a>. </p>
<p>Researchers and experts outside government have often led experiments in citizen participation. However, there have been successes in involving ordinary citizens in government decision-making. Citizen participation is now a permanent part of government in <a href="https://www.sortitionfoundation.org/paris_creates_permanent_citizens_council">Paris</a>, <a href="https://www.g1000.org/en/news/brussels-launches-worlds-first-permanent-citizens-assembly-climate">Brussels</a>, and <a href="https://cop-demos.jrc.ec.europa.eu/blog/new-generation-citizens-panels">the European Union</a>, for example.</p>
<p>But how could greater citizen involvement have helped the UK’s COVID response? A major focus for the inquiry so far has been the initial COVID lockdown. According to a 2022 government report, the decision to delay locking down was <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5802/cmselect/cmsctech/92/9207.htm">partly based on</a> the “widespread view that the public would not accept a lockdown for a significant period”.</p>
<p>Widespread perhaps, but not necessarily true. Members of the public <a href="https://academic.oup.com/abm/article/56/8/781/6618645">largely complied with</a> COVID restrictions, showing themselves willing to sacrifice some liberty in exchange for fewer lives lost to COVID. And <a href="https://academic.oup.com/abm/article/56/8/781/6618645">evidence shows</a> most people continued to abide by the rules during the second and arguably tougher lockdown.</p>
<p>One way to prevent this kind of misconception happening again could be to directly involve citizens in the ethical trade-offs of emergency decisions.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-how-incorrect-assumptions-and-poor-foresight-hampered-the-uks-pandemic-preparedness-208720">COVID: how incorrect assumptions and poor foresight hampered the UK's pandemic preparedness</a>
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<p>There have been some public deliberations on COVID-related issues in the UK during the pandemic, led by academics, public sector bodies and independent research groups. These included citizens’ juries on allocating limited <a href="https://jme.bmj.com/content/47/5/291.long">intensive care resources</a> if the health system became overwhelmed, weighing up the benefits <a href="https://arc-gm.nihr.ac.uk/media/Resources/ARC/Digital%20Health/Citizen%20Juries/12621_NIHR_Juries_Report_ELECTRONIC.pdf">of health data sharing</a> with privacy concerns, and building public trust in <a href="https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/report/confidence-in-crisis-building-public-trust-contact-tracing-app/">contact tracing apps</a>. </p>
<p>Citizen deliberation has also happened in devolved and local government. In <a href="https://participedia.net/case/7381">Scotland</a> a citizens’ panel informed the Scottish government’s oversight of its COVID restrictions. A citizens’ assembly in <a href="https://participedia.net/case/7429%20">Camden</a>, London, considered the effects of COVID on local residents while one in <a href="https://participedia.net/case/7218">Bristol</a> set priorities for the city’s COVID recovery. </p>
<p>However, there’s no evidence the UK government heeded any of the findings from these deliberations when designing policy.</p>
<h2>Diverse experiences and perspectives</h2>
<p>A major benefit of engaging the public is the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/episteme/article/abs/deliberative-democracy-and-the-epistemic-benefits-of-diversity/F7DEBFAF58A2CC8EE3D96EF83ED41E60">diverse experiences and perspectives</a> they bring. Citizen engagement can reveal ideas and arguments that may not have been raised otherwise. </p>
<p>For example, a public deliberation on <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3645483/">colorectal cancer screening</a> recommendations revealed concerns around the lack of information available about different screening options. This concern had not been considered by an expert panel which had focused on clinical benefits and cost-effectiveness.</p>
<p>Members of the public are capable of sophisticated moral reasoning. The deliberation on <a href="https://jme.bmj.com/content/47/5/291.long">intensive care resource allocation</a> mentioned earlier balanced the ethical values of efficiency, vulnerability, and equality in their recommendations that age should not be directly considered in triage policy.</p>
<p>Moving beyond expert voices can also help bring attention to the perspectives of marginalised communities who are often politically ignored. This was the case when <a href="https://www.wri.org/research/porto-alegre-participatory-budgeting-and-challenge-sustaining-transformative-change">deliberative democracy in Brazil</a> led to a focus on the priorities of poor and minority citizens in regional spending decisions. </p>
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<img alt="A man on a video call on his computer with multiple participants." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537347/original/file-20230713-29-4vturh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537347/original/file-20230713-29-4vturh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537347/original/file-20230713-29-4vturh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537347/original/file-20230713-29-4vturh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537347/original/file-20230713-29-4vturh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537347/original/file-20230713-29-4vturh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537347/original/file-20230713-29-4vturh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Citizens’ juries can be adapted for pandemic situations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/business-video-conferencing-young-man-having-1725467707">Girts Ragelis/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Ultimately, citizen participation can have a big impact. One major success story is the <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/05/a-jury-of-peers/">Irish Citizens’ Assembly</a> which in 2017 recommended the legalisation of abortion and called for the matter to be put to a referendum. </p>
<p>The Irish government accepted the call for a referendum, and recommendations from the assembly <a href="https://involve.org.uk/resources/blog/opinion/citizens-assembly-behind-irish-abortion-referendum">became</a> a valuable public resource during the campaign. In 2018, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/26/ireland-votes-by-landslide-to-legalise-abortion">66%</a> of Irish voters chose to overturn the ban on abortion.</p>
<h2>Preparing for the next pandemic</h2>
<p>While the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-statement-on-coronavirus-18-march-2020">UK government</a> regularly claimed COVID policymaking was “following the science”, this obscured the complexities that had to be considered during the pandemic. </p>
<p>Pandemic decisions involve values-based dilemmas, complex trade-offs, and long-term challenges. These are the same three factors <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/339306da-en/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/339306da-en&_csp_=07698b7c924c319dbb92a6500bf563da&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=book">researchers at the OECD have identified</a> as making a topic suitable for public deliberation. </p>
<p>Would public deliberation take too long in a crisis? On the contrary, it can be designed for speed. Take the online deliberative event <a href="https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/report/confidence-in-crisis-building-public-trust-contact-tracing-app/">on contact tracing</a> which took place more rapidly than usual so recommendations could be made quickly.</p>
<p>And speed wouldn’t be a problem if structures are built for citizen participation in time for the next pandemic. With permanent deliberative bodies that citizens could be randomly selected to participate in, with compensation to ensure they could take time off work to do so, deliberations could take place rapidly and efficiently. </p>
<p>If this seems fanciful, just consider that jury service, an everyday part of public life, works the same way. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-scotlands-new-citizen-assemblies-could-mean-for-democracy-119793">Explainer: what Scotland's new citizen assemblies could mean for democracy</a>
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<p>Citizen-led deliberation has become a formal part of governments <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/4fcf1da5-en.pdf?expires=1689456788&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=AF75B30FF539A2CE2719AE542F92D3C3">across the world</a>. The UK COVID inquiry should recommend Britain follow their example. Doing so could <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/339306da-en/1/3/6/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/339306da-en&_csp_=07698b7c924c319dbb92a6500bf563da&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=book#section-d1e8688">empower citizens</a>, improve public trust, revitalise British democracy, and prepare us for the next pandemic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208898/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Webb was a researcher on the UKRI funded project the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator during the period where some of the research for this piece was completed.</span></em></p>Deliberative democracy should have a place in emergency decision-making. Here’s how it works.Jamie Webb, PhD Candidate, Centre for Technomoral Futures, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1936872022-11-07T19:13:51Z2022-11-07T19:13:51ZPower to the people: How Canada can build a more connected and responsive Parliament<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492999/original/file-20221102-12-jtdye0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3600%2C2177&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Low voter turnout in recent Canadian elections sharply illustrates how the public is disconnected from political institutions and their representatives. How can they be re-engaged?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Canadian citizens, like those in many other democratic countries, struggle with a <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/b407f99c-en/1/3/2/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/b407f99c-en&_csp_=c12e05718c887e57d9519eb8c987718b&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=book#figure-d1e2356">lack of trust</a> in their federal and provincial legislatures, their major political parties and members of Parliament. </p>
<p>One of the primary reasons is because the public is disconnected from political institutions and their representatives.</p>
<p>While our parliamentary system does offer opportunities for the public to provide some input via <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/government/system/consultations/consultingcanadians.html">public consultations</a>, many of those initiatives are limited by the fact that citizens cannot set the agenda, deliberate on issues they believe are important or make binding policy decisions. </p>
<p>One proposed solution to this problem has been to empower the public through <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/339306da-en/1/3/2/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/339306da-en&_csp_=07698b7c924c319dbb92a6500bf563da&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=book">institutionalized representative deliberative processes</a> — especially regularly scheduled and revamped town halls. There are also calls for the creation of a permanent structure for citizen deliberation, like the <a href="https://oidp.net/en/practice.php?id=1237">Ostbelgien Model</a> that consists of randomly selected and demographically representative “<a href="https://www.newdemocracy.com.au/docs/researchnotes/2017_May/nDF_RN_20170508_FormsOfMiniPublics.pdf">mini-publics</a>.”</p>
<p>Canadians have pioneered the respected <a href="https://nationalcitizensassembly.ca/">National Citizens’ Assemblies on Electoral Reform</a> and <a href="https://www.commissioncanada.ca/">Democratic Expression</a>, funded in part by the federal government. They also do well in innovating the delivery of certain public services <a href="https://www.metrolinx.com/en/aboutus/inthecommunity/theplan/2017-08-10%20Residents%20Reference%20Panal%20Final%20Report.pdf">like transportation</a>, but the country has yet to explore how it can strengthen democracy through representative and constituency work. </p>
<h2>Rebooting Canada’s political system</h2>
<p>There is evidence from the <a href="https://connectingtocongress.org/">Connecting to Congress</a> and <a href="https://connect2parliament.com/">Connect to Parliament</a>, projects in the United States and Australia respectively, that Canada can transform its political system to be more efficient and responsive.</p>
<p>This could lead to a public that’s more willing to be engaged in politics, learn and converse with their neighbours and have favourable opinions of politicians, even if they’re aligned differently on the political spectrum. It’s achieved by designing meaningful deliberative town halls where members of the public get to have a say in policy.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-anti-poverty-initiative-focuses-on-lived-experiences-to-help-shape-policy-192305">New anti-poverty initiative focuses on lived experiences to help shape policy</a>
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<p>In Australia, Connecting to Parliament hosted a series of deliberative town halls in the district of Fenner, near the capital of Canberra, between residents and their MP, Andrew Leigh. </p>
<p>The topic was about reversing the ban on <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/mitochondrial-donation#:%7E:text=Mitochondrial%20donation%20is%20an%20assisted,passed%20on%20to%20an%20embryo.">mitochondrial donation</a>, a reproductive technology. </p>
<p>In 2020, the Australian government decided to permit a free vote on the topic, and Leigh <a href="https://www.andrewleigh.com/mitochondrial_donation_law_reform_maeve_s_law_bill_2021_speech_house_of_representatives">allowed his constituents to have their say and determine his vote</a> through a series of online and in-person deliberative town halls. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1303970465526947841"}"></div></p>
<p>So far, deliberative town halls have been held with individual elected members of the U.S. Congress and Australian parliament, but not systematically rolled out.</p>
<h2>How Canada can boost civic engagement</h2>
<p>I believe Canadian officials must build on this model on a large scale, consistent with Canada’s pledges on public engagement in the <a href="https://www.opengovpartnership.org/members/canada/commitments/CA0060/">Open Government Partnership</a>, which is already exploring how to establish a permanent forum for public dialogue. The federal government could use a <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6005ceb747a6a51d636af58d/t/6010d0afcf56e50b6225c3cc/1611714741352/DAF2020.pdf">democratic action fund</a> to host the conversations. </p>
<p>Canadian Parliament should hold two rounds of online/offline civic engagement in Canada after every election cycle to introduce publicly informed and determined legislation on any given issue. </p>
<p>It would work like this: A first round of 338 deliberative town halls would consist of every federal MP conducting a riding-based, deliberative mini-public, crowd-sourcing community ideas via a survey in advance, and then choose to submit a collectively agreed-upon idea.</p>
<p>Elected officials in Parliament would then commit to selecting a menu of issues on the basis of a free vote, and these would move forward for further rounds of consideration. </p>
<p>In the second round of this process, MPs would then go back to their community for more discussion on the selected issues, and put forward just one, which the MP would then vote for in a parliamentary ranked-ballot conscience vote. </p>
<p>The top selection would move forward for parliamentary scrutiny. The mechanism could also apply to the Senate, or other levels of government. </p>
<p>Ultimately, there is room for tweaks and improvement, and further public participation via online input during the initial rounds and then at the latter stages of parliamentary reading.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The West Block of Parliament Hill is pictured with orange, yellow and red trees framing it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493002/original/file-20221102-26784-9wqwug.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493002/original/file-20221102-26784-9wqwug.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493002/original/file-20221102-26784-9wqwug.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493002/original/file-20221102-26784-9wqwug.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493002/original/file-20221102-26784-9wqwug.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493002/original/file-20221102-26784-9wqwug.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493002/original/file-20221102-26784-9wqwug.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">This place could be a lot more responsive to the public.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Power to the people</h2>
<p>Problems with party politics abound, largely driven by the fusion of executive and legislative powers that enforces party discipline to ensure laws are passed.</p>
<p>This process would help solve the issue of backbenchers lacking influence, which by default also undermines local constituents. This also offers a new way for private member’s bills to be developed and gives a level of influence to the public.</p>
<p>If we aim for <a href="https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226588674-015">repeated and open interactions</a> between politicians and the public, it will enhance our arguably very limited parliamentary engagement efforts. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-deliberative-democracy-research-in-nepal-shows-it-could-spur-global-youth-voting-189204">What's 'deliberative' democracy? Research in Nepal shows it could spur global youth voting</a>
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<p>The design of these deliberative town halls would have to involve considerations of inclusion and efficiency.</p>
<p>That means selection procedures would have to ensure that the participants are diverse, that moderation is inclusive of all opinions, information is balanced with the potential use of local experts on the subject, and decision-making is transparent. From there, there must be online and/or in-person opportunities to participate and build connections. </p>
<p>Canadian democracy demands new ways of engaging citizens in Parliament. It’s time to act on this demand.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193687/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Vlahos is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra, Australia, and leads the Connecting to Parliament project. </span></em></p>Problems with party politics abound, largely driven by the fusion of executive and legislative powers that enforces party discipline. Here’s how to get the public more involved.Nick Vlahos, Postdoctoral Fellow, Political Science, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1890532022-10-17T18:40:28Z2022-10-17T18:40:28ZUniversities can foster more deliberative democracy — starting by empowering students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489260/original/file-20221011-16-qc3sk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C143%2C6000%2C3547&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Overhauling approaches to student participation in university governance is one way universities can help revitalize the democracy we want. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pexels/Yan Krukov)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/universities-can-foster-more-deliberative-democracy-—--starting-by-empowering-students" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>As universities roar back to life with renewed expectations, students head to institutions that will shape their lives both now and in the future.</p>
<p>At university, students are presented with various opportunities to <a href="https://doi.org/10.47678/cjhe.v29i1.183330">participate in the governance</a> of these communities. They may be asked to answer surveys, vote or — if they are confident enough — run for elected positions in a student union or as a class representative. </p>
<p>As researchers interested in exploring novel approaches to practising democracy in organizations, we see this type of participation as crucial. </p>
<p>It can enable diverse groups of students to interact, tackle important issues, hold universities accountable and develop their capacities to be confident, engaged and thoughtful participants in civic life. </p>
<h2>Pressing aspirations</h2>
<p>These aspirations are all the more pressing in light of democracy’s current challenges — like <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjwh_Hdtcz6AhXHMjQIHcGnAW8QFnoECAYQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.idea.int%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fpublications%2Fvoter-turnout-trends-around-the-world.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1FK3TkczC9ajZVgvAFQHCp">low voter turnout</a>, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/06/06/public-trust-in-government-1958-2022/">distrust</a> and <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w26669">polarization</a>. </p>
<p>Universities have a role in revitalizing democracy. Yet, despite the merits of contemporary approaches to student participation in university governance, these tend to face major deficiencies. </p>
<p>We argue that universities should look to democratic innovations seen with initiatives <a href="https://www.climateassembly.uk/report/read/index.html">like Climate Assembly UK</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen at a table with brochures outdoors." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489263/original/file-20221011-17-hwa587.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489263/original/file-20221011-17-hwa587.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489263/original/file-20221011-17-hwa587.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489263/original/file-20221011-17-hwa587.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489263/original/file-20221011-17-hwa587.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489263/original/file-20221011-17-hwa587.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489263/original/file-20221011-17-hwa587.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Efforts to engage students on campus have much to learn from democratic innovation in civil society.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Looking to democratic innovations</h2>
<p>Climate Assembly UK was initiated by a group of select committees of the United Kingdom’s House of Commons. Organizers selected the 108 members — made up of everyday citizens — through a <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6005ceb747a6a51d636af58d/t/6010cf8f038cf00c5a546bd7/1611714451073/civiclotteryguide.pdf">democratic lottery</a>. </p>
<p>The use of a lottery brought together a diverse group of voices, representative of the demographic profile of the U.K., and distributed opportunities for civic engagement more equitably across the population. </p>
<p>Over six weekends, these citizens heard from a range of experts and stakeholders and deliberated together with the support of independent facilitators. They developed and presented recommendations spanning topics including consumption, travel and greenhouse gas removals. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EDGp5eGnnxI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Climate Assembly UK members’ report.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Climate Assembly UK is just one example of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198747369.013.27">deliberative “mini-public,”</a> whose use has been <a href="https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/Z7X6GT">proliferating</a> globally.</p>
<p>They’ve been used to tackle issues like <a href="https://www.metrolinx.com/en/aboutus/inthecommunity/theplan/default.aspx">transportation planning</a>, <a href="https://participedia.net/case/4472">child care</a>, <a href="https://www.commissioncanada.ca">democratic expression and the impact of digital technologies</a> and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081204065843/http://www.tekno.dk/subpage.php3?article=496&language=uk&category=11&toppic=kategori11">genetic testing</a>. </p>
<h2>Problems go beyond headlines</h2>
<p>In the world of university student politics, recent years in Canada saw reporting about <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/panbw9/a-student-unions-booze-spending-scandal-is-perfect-fodder-for-doug-ford">spending scandals</a>, <a href="https://thevarsity.ca/2018/01/22/protests-scuffles-erupt-at-scsu-all-candidates-meeting/">disqualified candidates</a>, threatened <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/mcgill-threatens-student-union-pro-palestine-policy-1.6409879">sanctions</a> over polarizing decisions and the <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/uottawa-students-vote-out-student-federation-accused-of-mismanagement">wholesale replacement</a> of a student federation over misconduct allegations. </p>
<p>Reporting about these challenges also makes headlines in the <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/college/news/a53730/not-my-system-uf-student-government-video/">United States</a> and <a href="https://thetab.com/uk/london/2015/03/06/mass-fraud-allegations-hit-union-election-winners-16422">the U.K.</a> </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2022.2111551">recent research</a> finds such headlines are symptomatic of wider problems.</p>
<p>Shortcomings are less about people and more about the approaches used to involve them. Traditional approaches ultimately fail to foster universities’ capacity to have inclusive and thoughtful discussion shape decision-making — their “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414009332129">deliberative capacity</a>.” After all, in any democracy, people expect more than simply staying out of scandal. </p>
<h2>Limitations of surveys, voting, running for office</h2>
<p>While surveys are easy to administer, they limit student voice to top-of-the-head responses. They provide information isolated from background context and collect views unevenly across demographics. </p>
<p>Like voting — which regularly suffers from <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279194074_Are_you_voting_today_Student_participation_in_self-government_elections">poor turnout</a> — surveys also offer limited opportunity for students to develop civic skills and capacities like critical thinking and communication.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person filling out a digital survey next to a row of response options." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489264/original/file-20221011-15759-7r5061.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489264/original/file-20221011-15759-7r5061.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489264/original/file-20221011-15759-7r5061.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489264/original/file-20221011-15759-7r5061.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489264/original/file-20221011-15759-7r5061.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489264/original/file-20221011-15759-7r5061.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489264/original/file-20221011-15759-7r5061.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is answering surveys really the best way to engage student opinion?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For those few students ready to overcome barriers to running for, and winning, elected roles, more intensive experiences await. But these experiences are often in unsupported environments that foster conflictual or self-interested approaches to shared concerns. </p>
<p>Yet another question is the extent to which these elected students <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2017.1377961">reflect the diversity</a> of the student body. </p>
<h2>More deliberative student influence</h2>
<p>Some universities are beginning to experiment with mini-publics. Our own universities experimented with a “<a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/law/undergraduate/student-voice/students-jury">Students’ Jury</a>” on pandemic learning and a “<a href="https://www.uvic.ca/external/community/students-dialogue/index.php">Students’ Dialogue</a>” on youth participation in democracy and civil political discourse. </p>
<p>The London School of Economics’ <a href="https://www.lsesu.com/voice/democracyreview/summit/">Students’ Union</a>
recently used this approach to redesign its democratic structures. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2022.2111551">research concludes</a> that, if done well, the key features of mini-publics provide a compelling means of more inclusive, deliberative student influence and should be used much more broadly. </p>
<p>A student mini-public could be commissioned by either university or student union leadership. The gathering size can be tailored — from a jury of 12 students to an assembly of 150. Mini-publics can be purposefully combined with existing opportunities like representation on boards of directors to maximize impact.</p>
<p>Through mini-publics, students could address a wide range of important and potentially controversial issues that university communities can act on, like universities’ strategies for tackling climate change or campus free speech or student housing. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person is seen with a protest banner on a university logo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489251/original/file-20221011-16-tzksr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489251/original/file-20221011-16-tzksr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489251/original/file-20221011-16-tzksr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489251/original/file-20221011-16-tzksr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489251/original/file-20221011-16-tzksr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489251/original/file-20221011-16-tzksr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489251/original/file-20221011-16-tzksr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mini-publics could help universities engage students in deliberations about tackling climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tackling a student housing strategy</h2>
<p>A university seeking to <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/solving-the-student-housing-crisis/">co-develop its student housing strategy</a> might convene a student mini-public of 36 students to tackle the issue.</p>
<p>Using a democratic lottery would ensure the mini-public reflects the diversity of the student body based on characteristics like gender, academic year, race, international versus domestic enrolment status, income and current housing situation. </p>
<p>Students would access balanced and comprehensive briefing materials on topics like the university’s current land use policies, environmental strategies and finances. They would learn from experts like urban planners and researchers, as well as stakeholders like residence services staff, local developers and other students. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/housing-is-both-a-human-right-and-a-profitable-asset-and-thats-the-problem-172846">Housing is both a human right and a profitable asset, and that's the problem</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Their recommendations would be shared not only with relevant decision-makers, but also the broader student body to help inform conversations in the student newspaper or social media, in dining halls or in the student pub. </p>
<p>Such an approach would give every student an equal chance to contribute and develop, help guard against the distortions of the self-selecting “usual suspects,” and facilitate a student voice that reflects the diversity of backgrounds, personalities and needs in the student body. </p>
<h2>Thoughtful, representative decisions</h2>
<p>Built-in learning, facilitation and deliberation means that decisions are informed and shaped by others’ perspectives. </p>
<p>This not only means more thoughtful and representative decisions, but a greater diversity of students accessing meaningful, deliberative civic education. </p>
<p>While there is still a lot to learn about incorporating student mini-publics, they are an exciting and realistic prospect. </p>
<p>It’s crucial universities take innovative steps to foster more inclusive, deliberative approaches while educating for the kind of democracy we want.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189053/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research project this article is based on was partially funded by Simon Pek's President's Chair award.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey Kennedy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Universities should look to democratic innovations seen in society like ‘mini publics’ where citizens deliberate about critical issues in representative forums.Simon Pek, Associate Professor, Gustavson School of Business, University of VictoriaJeffrey Kennedy, Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Criminal Law, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1892042022-09-20T17:16:11Z2022-09-20T17:16:11ZWhat’s ‘deliberative’ democracy? Research in Nepal shows it could spur global youth voting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484338/original/file-20220913-4780-xlylo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C5997%2C3998&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young people prioritize issues in preparation for a political debate in Lalitpur, Nepal. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tom O'Neill</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After local elections in Nepal earlier this year, the <em>Kathmandu Post</em> expressed some alarm that <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/national/2022/05/15/nepalis-in-general-love-to-vote-why-is-turnout-low-then-disenchantment">Nepalis were losing interest in voting</a>. </p>
<p>Across the country, election participation fell by 10 percentage points, from 74 per cent in 2017 to 64 per cent in 2022.</p>
<p>We in Canada should envy even the lower figure as similar elections here — <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-records-lowest-voter-turnout-in-election-history-1.5931440">Ontario’s June 2022 election, in particular</a> — drew less than half of the voting populace. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2017.22106">Voter apathy is a global phenomenon</a> and is a significant threat to democracy. Apathetic voters make it easier for autocrats and powerful interest groups to cynically manipulate election results.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1531200491945766913"}"></div></p>
<p>Youth political apathy indicates distrust in contemporary political culture.</p>
<p>German sociologist <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2015.03.001">Karl Mannheim</a> once argued that young people must adapt the social institutions of the past to the contemporary realities they are born into. </p>
<p>But youth around the world are contending with issues today that their parents barely encountered, including precarious labour markets, extended demand for higher education, globalizing technologies and shifting gender relations. They are understandably questioning how aging democratic institutions are relevant to their needs.</p>
<p>Nepal is a new democracy, and those institutions were won after <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2008/4/8/timeline-of-nepals-civil-war-2">decades of civil war and political struggle</a>. That’s why Nepalis participate in their elections at levels that put most of the rest of the democratic world to shame. But voting is not all there is to democracy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a colourful fez and wearing a mask pushes a ruler inside a ballot box," src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484186/original/file-20220913-26-k8vjfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7391%2C4160&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484186/original/file-20220913-26-k8vjfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484186/original/file-20220913-26-k8vjfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484186/original/file-20220913-26-k8vjfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484186/original/file-20220913-26-k8vjfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484186/original/file-20220913-26-k8vjfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484186/original/file-20220913-26-k8vjfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An election worker uses a ruler to make space inside the ballot box during local level elections in Kathmandu, Nepal, in May 2022. Nepalese people voted nationwide to elect representatives of municipalities and village development committees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Citizens make decisions</h2>
<p>In a representative democracy, voters choose which politician or political party will make decisions about contemporary realities on their behalf. Politicians and political parties have a great deal of power to define what those realities are and how they should be addressed. </p>
<p>Contesting and corrupting that power has become a central focus in many democracies. But what gets lost is the deliberative potential of democracy, in which citizens debate contemporary issues among themselves so that the decisions they make together carry more weight and are more broadly legitimate.</p>
<p><a href="https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol39/iss2/6/">As a professor of youth studies, I have been researching political engagement</a> with a team of Nepali youth activists for the past decade. We took the idea of deliberative democracy to young Nepalis through a series of youth assemblies held across the country in 2018 and 2019. </p>
<p>In deliberative assemblies, also known as “mini-publics,” a group of citizens selected to accurately reflect the diversity of the population is assigned the task of deliberating a contemporary issue. They then craft a common position that is used to inform decisions made by their political representatives.</p>
<p>Deliberative assemblies have been used around the world to address issues like participatory budgeting (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329201029001003">in Porto Alegre, Brazil</a>), constitutional reform (<a href="https://www.citizensassembly.ie/en/dublin-assembly/about/about-dublin-ca.html">in Ireland</a>) and electoral reform (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592713000674">in British Columbia</a>).</p>
<p>Our youth assemblies were designed to reflect Nepal’s diversity. More than 200 youths participated, and were drawn from the <em>Brahmin-Chetris</em> castes, the traditional political elites of the country; the <em>Adivasi Janajati</em>, Nepal’s Indigenous and ethnic groups; the <em>Madhesi</em>, the culturally and linguistically distinct peoples that inhabit the plains that border India; and the <em>Dalits</em>, or “untouchable” castes that have for centuries been subjected to menial labour and debt bondage. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three young women dressed in colourful Indigenous garb smile at the camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484202/original/file-20220913-14-wguk65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484202/original/file-20220913-14-wguk65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484202/original/file-20220913-14-wguk65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484202/original/file-20220913-14-wguk65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484202/original/file-20220913-14-wguk65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484202/original/file-20220913-14-wguk65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484202/original/file-20220913-14-wguk65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Young Indigenous people of Nepal celebrate at the Ubhauli festival in Kathmandu, Nepal, in May 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Heated debates</h2>
<p>There was also an even balance between men and women, and participants included those who identified as LGTBQ or who had disabilities, two communities that have had little recognition in the country.</p>
<p>During the assemblies, participants were tasked with composing a collective declaration that identified five priorities for Nepal’s political leadership to address. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484204/original/file-20220913-12-1r22zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two grey-haired men, one wearing a fez, shake hands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484204/original/file-20220913-12-1r22zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484204/original/file-20220913-12-1r22zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484204/original/file-20220913-12-1r22zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484204/original/file-20220913-12-1r22zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484204/original/file-20220913-12-1r22zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484204/original/file-20220913-12-1r22zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484204/original/file-20220913-12-1r22zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba shakes hands with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in New Delhi, India, in April 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Manish Swarup)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The debates that led to these declarations were contentious and often heated, showing that Nepali youth had many different visions about how to define and address Nepal’s contemporary problems. There was consensus, however, on the need for broader equality and the reform of Nepal’s political culture, which is dominated by powerful, high-caste males and riddled with nepotism.</p>
<p>These declarations alone would have limited value if there were no uptake by political decision-makers. But using deliberative mini-publics as a model, youth delegates presented their declarations to a panel of political leaders from all three levels of Nepal’s government. </p>
<p>Deliberative democracy, however, is not yet a feature of Nepal’s political culture. Leaders are more familiar with mobilizing youth for political action than they are with actually heeding young people. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-lowering-the-voting-age-in-canada-is-such-a-good-idea-180108">Why lowering the voting age in Canada is such a good idea</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<hr>
<p>Several of the leaders invited to the assemblies politely listened to the youth declarations and then gave stump speeches as if to an election rally. But others were challenged by the youth delegates and responded to their priorities.</p>
<p>Our youth assemblies were experimental, and the political leaders who attended them were under no obligation to act upon anything they learned from them. But they did show that deliberation and dialogue can inspire political engagement. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6khEuBg0FA&ab_channel=TomONeill">documentary video</a> about our research, young Nepalis show that they are articulate, capable and passionate advocates for themselves and their communities. </p>
<p>At a time when democratic norms appear to be in decline around the world, deliberative democracy is one remedy that our research with Nepali youth suggests is worth pursuing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189204/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom O'Neill receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>At a time when democratic norms appear to be in decline around the world, deliberative democracy is one potential remedy worth pursuing.Tom O'Neill, Professor, Department of Child and Youth Studies, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1305252020-08-10T14:53:13Z2020-08-10T14:53:13ZThe brain’s autocomplete feature oversimplifies complex issues and impedes tolerance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351172/original/file-20200804-14-a2vt4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C7%2C5160%2C3437&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Autocomplete is a search engine function that tries to predict the terms being entered into the search bar, and offers suggestions for related searches.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Enter any of the following words into your browser’s search bar: progressive, liberal, conservative, evangelical, right wing, gay, straight, Muslim, Republican or Democrat. Do you notice that other terms that the algorithms think are related appear automatically?</p>
<p>Where you have paused — maybe to think more or to press the Enter key — autocomplete has stepped in to finish what you started. </p>
<p>Similarly, when we think of those political terms, the brain kicks in too. And, like autocomplete, it completes our thoughts — and not always for the better. The hostilities in our civic discourse are often exacerbated by this feature of our cognition. We live in an era of extreme political and social polarization: this autocomplete instinct undermines the possibility of effective deliberative democracy.</p>
<h2>‘Lazy’ reasoning</h2>
<p>Recent scholarship on human cognition demonstrates that we have evolved to be both biased and lazy reasoners. According to cognitive scientists Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber, we become “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674237827">[b]iased because human reason overwhelmingly finds justifications and arguments that support the reasoner’s point of view, lazy because reason makes little effort to assess the quality of the justifications and arguments it produces</a>.” We have evolved shortcuts that allow us to assess situations quickly and act accordingly. </p>
<p>These shortcuts allow for efficiencies that make life workable. When applied to our social and civic lives, this often contributes to polarization. As cognitive scientists Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach argue in <em>The Knowlege Illusion</em>, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/533524/the-knowledge-illusion-by-steven-sloman-and-philip-fernbach/">[i]nstead of appreciating complexity, people tend to affiliate with one or another social dogma</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351405/original/file-20200805-237-5x6ret.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photo from behind of a woman who appears to be offended looking over her shoulder at a man sitting next to her in an office meeting setting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351405/original/file-20200805-237-5x6ret.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351405/original/file-20200805-237-5x6ret.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351405/original/file-20200805-237-5x6ret.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351405/original/file-20200805-237-5x6ret.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351405/original/file-20200805-237-5x6ret.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351405/original/file-20200805-237-5x6ret.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351405/original/file-20200805-237-5x6ret.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Relying on mental autocomplete can create situations where collaboration and communication is difficult.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Response anxiety</h2>
<p>I grew up having lively political debates with my parents around our dinner table. Since then, I’ve been ready, willing and able to jump into the fray of civic discourse in almost any context with very little prompting. Recently, however, I have become anxious and often just keep my mouth shut.</p>
<p>I am an active, practising Christian who has spoken and written about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51507-0_14">the relationship between faith and civic life</a>. I used to quite freely identify myself as a Christian and acknowledge that <a href="https://education.uottawa.ca/sites/education.uottawa.ca/files/revue_edu_en_fall_2013.pdf">my scholarship and civic participation are shaped by my faith</a>. </p>
<p>Given the highly controversial and often toxic participation of the so-called Christian right in civic life in both Canada and the United States, I am now often reluctant to show my colours this way. I worry that people’s natural tendency to efficient — or lazy — reasoning will cause them to default to mental autocomplete to categorize me and my views rather than engaging in the more difficult and complex work of really listening and seeking to understand.</p>
<p>Search engines learn from previous input to make current and future online work more efficient. When I want to order a book online, register for a conference or fill out a form to apply for some kind of service, as I start to type my name in the first box the browser’s memory calls up the rest of my information – last name, address, phone number, email, etc. — and completes the form for me. Like my brain, it looks for ways to help me move quickly and easily through the process.</p>
<h2>Managing identities</h2>
<p>The problem is that I have two online identities: a personal identity and a professional one, each with different addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. My browser can’t distinguish which of these is appropriate for the task at hand and often defaults to the wrong one.</p>
<p>I see a similar thing happening in civic discourse when a person expresses a view that is identified with an easy political label. When I tell people I am an academic, for example, they often make the assumption that my positions on political or social issues will all fall on the left, or progressive, end of the spectrum. Many people characterize professors as inevitably liberal and a process of mental autocomplete kicks in and fills in all kinds of other boxes automatically. </p>
<p>Mental autocomplete assumes that if we know one thing about a person’s political orientation, we can automatically attribute many other things to them. This is an example of what Sloman and Fernbach refer to as “the knowledge illusion,” which includes our tendency to simplify when “most things are complicated, even things that seem simple.”</p>
<p>Most people’s social and political beliefs are too complex to be captured by autocomplete and require nuanced understanding that moves beyond simplistic categories. As political theorist David Moscrop argues, “<a href="https://gooselane.com/products/too-dumb-for-democracy">[d]emocracy calls each of us to do something that we have not specifically evolved to do: engage in complex and often abstract reasoning</a>.” </p>
<h2>Hard boundaries for complex ideas</h2>
<p>The possibility of being misunderstood has always been there of course, but in today’s hyperpartisan, angry public square it seems much more dangerous. </p>
<p>Identifying or being identified with a particular position can result in widespread and caustic condemnation. It is not that some positions don’t deserve condemnation, but positions and the people that hold them, deserve careful consideration before being judged. </p>
<p>Our civic discourse seems less about wrestling with moving toward the common good, and more about defining boundaries between and among people. This is not consistent with a healthy democratic ethos that values diverse perspectives and recognizes the need for compromise. </p>
<p>Using autocomplete oversimplifies both individuals and the positions they take, and makes collaboration more difficult. I can turn off the autocomplete feature of my search engine and make sure that the correct information gets entered — as a society, we would do well to learn how to override our cognitive autocomplete.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130525/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Sears receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada</span></em></p>Our brains use a function similar to a search engine’s autocomplete feature, but sometimes we get it wrong.Alan Sears, Honorary Research Professor, Faculty of Education, University of New BrunswickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1192652019-06-21T15:14:56Z2019-06-21T15:14:56ZTo tackle the climate crisis we need more democracy, not less<p>As the climate crisis is increasingly felt across the globe, protesters take to the streets and politicians scrabble to respond, a crucial question is beginning to emerge. How can governments develop climate strategies which build public support for action? An announcement by six UK parliamentary committees that they will hold a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/20/uk-citizens-assembly-on-climate-emergency-announced">citizens’ assembly on the climate emergency</a> is a crucial step toward answering that question.</p>
<p>There are no shortage of prescriptions for climate action. From economists calling for an economy-wide carbon tax, to scientists advocating “earth system governance” at the planetary level, there are experts assuring us that they have strategies to cut greenhouse gas emissions quickly and effectively. But there’s a dangerous illusion sitting behind these prescriptions – what the social scientist Maarten Hajer called the illusion of “<a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/2/1651">cockpitism</a>”. Cockpitism describes the assumption that you can dictate climate solutions the same way a pilot might fly a plane, sitting in the cockpit charting the most efficient course, with perfectly calibrated instruments and levers.</p>
<p>This illusion is very problematic – and not just because the climate system is an entity far more complex than a plane. It is problematic because it cuts people out. It is a seemingly apolitical view that self-defined “experts” can decide what is best for people and impose those solutions. At its most extreme, it suggests that democracy is the problem, not the solution – as veteran earth scientist James Lovelock <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/mar/29/james-lovelock-climate-change">once said</a>, “climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.green-alliance.org.uk/resources/Building_a_political_mandate_for_climate_action.pdf">My own research</a> suggests that the opposite is true. To tackle the climate crisis, we need more, and better, democracy, not less. My interviews with politicians showed that they were convinced of the need for action on climate, but did not know what support there would be from the electorate. As one told me: “I’ve had tens of thousands of conversations with voters, and I just don’t have conversations about climate change.” </p>
<p>But this may be about to change, as we know from polling data that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/05/greta-thunberg-effect-public-concern-over-environment-reaches-record-high">generalised concern about climate change is now at an all-time high</a>. Yet how does this translate into support for far-reaching climate action? Would people be more likely to support locally based programmes, with powers given to cities and towns to cut emissions? Would there be support for introducing a ban on petrol and diesel vehicles, over the next decade? Would people support higher taxes on carbon, if the money was invested in low-carbon solutions and support for vulnerable households? And crucially, how could this all link together into a credible, effective climate strategy that would build the mandate for further action toward a net-zero carbon target?</p>
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<span class="caption">People say they want climate action. But are they really ready to ban petrol cars?</span>
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<p>This is where processes such as a citizens’ assembly, or other deliberative processes such as citizens’ juries or deliberative workshops, can help. These processes allow a representative group of citizens to meet with experts on equal terms, assess evidence, debate and suggest solutions. They are not a substitute for electoral politics, but they provide a more nuanced and detailed understanding of voters’ viewpoints than traditional political polling or focus groups. </p>
<p>At the recent <a href="https://www.citizensassembly.ie/en/How-the-State-can-make-Ireland-a-leader-in-tackling-climate-change/Final-Report-on-how-the-State-can-make-Ireland-a-leader-in-tackling-climate-change/Climate-Change-Report-Final.pdf">Citizens’ Assembly on climate change</a> held in Ireland, citizens offered up a surprisingly radical and confident set of suggestions, most of which the government is now <a href="https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2019/0617/1055808-climate-action-plan/">taking forward</a>. In the UK, many local areas are now setting up deliberative processes to decide their own next steps on climate.</p>
<p>Done well, such processes can help to develop a more inclusive, less divisive politics, countering the distrust of “experts” and allowing a constant interplay between the views and values of the public and politicians.</p>
<p>A citizens’ assembly is not a panacea. Deliberation won’t, in and of itself, solve the problem. We need far-reaching action which will require radical policy and confrontation of vested interests. But this policy and action will only be achievable if people understand and support it. The more we find out about how to build a public mandate for climate action, and the more we include people in genuine debate and deliberation, the more likely we are to find a way through the climate crisis. If it’s not democratic, it’s not realistic.</p>
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/imagine-newsletter-researchers-think-of-a-world-with-climate-action-113443?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Imagineheader1119265">Click here to subscribe to our climate action newsletter. Climate change is inevitable. Our response to it isn’t.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119265/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Willis receives funding from the ESRC. She is affiliated with Green Alliance and the New Economics Foundation. </span></em></p>A citizens’ assembly can help identify what the people want. Because if climate action is not democratic, it’s not realistic.Rebecca Willis, Researcher in Environmental Policy and Politics, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1148682019-04-10T08:50:23Z2019-04-10T08:50:23ZBrexit: the differing versions of democracy deployed by both sides of Britain’s political impasse<p>Brexit is a deeply divisive issue. Even democracy itself turns out to be a source of disagreement. For some, democracy requires the UK to leave the EU quickly and by whatever means necessary to respect the result of the 2016 referendum. For others, democracy means a second referendum with the possibility of reversing the decision to leave.</p>
<p>How can the idea of democracy support two such seemingly contradictory conclusions? One body of expert knowledge that is particularly good at helping us to make sense of conundrums of this sort is democratic theory, a form of theory that seeks to both define democracy and evaluate actual democratic practices and institutions. </p>
<p>Democracy means “rule by the people”. But since the range of possible meanings that can be attributed to the terms “rule” and “people” are so numerous, democratic theory starts from the assumption that this basic definition does not take us very far.</p>
<p>Democracy means different things to different people and so the word has been attached to a range of different concepts and supporting theories. Liberal democracy, republican democracy, socialist democracy, participatory democracy and deliberative democracy are perhaps some of the more familiar terms.</p>
<p>The fact that there are so many different theories is a reminder that the meaning of democracy is not settled and that actual democracies are a work in progress. But it becomes a problem when people who use the term democracy to defend their views are either unable or unwilling to explain what they mean by it. Which brings us back to Brexit.</p>
<h2>Liberal democracy</h2>
<p>Often those who are pro-Brexit claim that a second referendum would <a href="http://commentcentral.co.uk/the-fallacy-of-a-second-referendum/">undermine people’s trust</a> in democracy. Presumably, those who hold this view believe that a second referendum would represent a departure from “rule by the people”. Yet those calling for a second referendum argue that if parliament were to decide that a second referendum is required, then this wouldn’t represent a departure from democracy <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-vote-theresa-may-ed-davey-confidence-final-say-people-vote-a8729356.html">since parliament is sovereign</a>. </p>
<p>What’s key here is understanding what kind of democracy each side of the debate believes it is upholding. </p>
<p>Presumably, for those arguing that the 2016 referendum must be respected at all costs, democracy means that if I roll the dice and win, I cannot be compelled to role the dice again. For the sake of argument, let us suppose this to be based on <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GxjdOk-ZeccC&pg=PR7&lpg=PR7&dq=Is+Democracy+Possible+Here?+chapter+5&source=bl&ots=a5lngTb49L&sig=ACfU3U0B059ySnqzwwv-ofA1qyF-gmiJZA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjc89OL9MDhAhXbVBUIHZveArwQ6AEwBXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Is%20Democracy%20Possible%20Here%3F%20chapter%205&f=false">liberal democratic theory</a>. </p>
<p>While liberal theories come in different forms, they normally insist that individuals and their rights are what matter most. As long as we act within our rights, government is duty bound not to try to tell us what to think. Each of us has a right to form a view about Brexit. It follows that government must respect those views without further question – its sole job is to aggregate those views into a collectively binding decision. And just as it is not the government’s place to tell us what to think, it is not its place to require us to reconsider our earlier decisions. </p>
<h2>Deliberative democracy</h2>
<p>So what theory of democracy might be called upon to support those who claim that a second referendum should be welcomed? One obvious candidate is <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Why_Deliberative_Democracy.html?id=1qaOH4GWG8cC">deliberative democracy</a>. On a deliberative view, political decisions ought to be decided on their merits. Of course, people are still entitled to their views. But what they cannot do is simply impose those views on others. Since political decisions are collectively binding they should be mutually justifiable. People should give reasons for their views but should be equally willing to listen to what others have to say. </p>
<p>In the ideal case, the result is a consensus. However, since in reality consensus is very hard to reach – time is often short, evidence tends to be incomplete, and risks and benefits can be highly uncertain – decisions will typically need to be treated as provisional. In other words, an initial decision can always be revisited. On a deliberative view, therefore, a second referendum may actually be required now amid the Brexit stalemate. Short of a consensus, people should continue to test their views and in principle be prepared to change them.</p>
<p>The upshot, therefore, is that different democratic theories are likely to give different answers to the same question. Even so, it’s surely better to know what we’re arguing over when we disagree about democracy than to find ourselves at odds without ever really understanding why. </p>
<p>Democratic theory is not easy. But it is parliamentarians’ responsibility to “do” democratic theory on our behalf – and be clearly seen to do so. Unfortunately, all too many of them seem ill-equipped or unwilling. The former might be forgiven, the latter should never be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114868/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian O'Flynn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What sort of democracy is now required to break the Brexit deadlock?Ian O'Flynn, Senior Lecturer in Political Theory, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1097202019-01-13T19:12:54Z2019-01-13T19:12:54ZPopulism’s problems can be fixed by getting the public better-informed. And that’s actually possible<p>Many commentators have been alarmed at the electoral wins of ultra conservative leaders around the world, as well as policy decisions such as Brexit made by a popular referendum. They see these as signs of a rising populism.</p>
<p>In its benign forms, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9248.12032">populism can simply</a> mean ordinary citizens’ desire to see their interests and preferences better reflected in policy making. It may also mean greater direct involvement in government by the people themselves. </p>
<p>But in its more dangerous manifestations, populism can mean a reckless, extreme distrust in governmental expertise. It can be under-informed, and divide communities between “us” and “them”. And – in its impatience to see change – it can tear down useful democratic values and institutions such as inclusivity and a neutral judiciary, which safeguard our rights in a democracy.</p>
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<p>There is at least one way we could harness the populist trend and turn it in a more useful direction: deliberative democracy.</p>
<p>As the name suggests, deliberative democracy aims to promote not only democratic majority rule, but also deliberation. This means well-informed, inclusive and reflective decision-making. While populism gives a greater role to ordinary citizens in the affairs of government, deliberative democracy models can improve this by ensuring citizen input is robustly inclusive, reflective and well-informed. </p>
<p>So far, deliberative democracy is the best answer we have to the challenge of populism.</p>
<h2>Deliberative democracy at work</h2>
<p>One form of deliberative democracy is to enlist ordinary citizens in deliberation, such as in the case of citizens’ juries. Here, randomly-picked groups of citizens are invited to attend a series of organised sessions, where they become well-informed on a specific policy matter before advising governments on the best way forward. </p>
<p>This model has been used hundreds of times around the world, including in the ACT (on matters such as <a href="https://www.newdemocracy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/RD-Note-Learnings-from-ACT-Housing-Choices.pdf">housing</a>) and South Australia (on <a href="https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/citizens-jury-overwhelmingly-rejects-nuclear-waste-storage-facility-for-south-australia/news-story/8340c103234775fffcf9b88b2aea6906">nuclear waste</a>).</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/city-calls-on-jury-of-its-citizens-to-deliberate-on-melbournes-future-59620">City calls on jury of its citizens to deliberate on Melbourne's future</a>
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<p>To many, such an approach seems fanciful. Their cynicism is based on the assumption members of the public couldn’t possibly deliberate about public matters thoughtfully. But <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/designing-deliberative-democracy/731C03A5DA5B3D6BC1CD910B0C9EF3D3">many studies</a> show that creative approaches to democracy, such as citizens’ juries, can increase how well ordinary citizens deliberate about the matters put to them. Citizens’ juries can be informed, inclusive, thoughtful, fair and intellectually supple.</p>
<p>Citizens’ juries have a particular kind of democratic legitimacy. Since they are randomly-selected, and often demographically representative of the larger population, the public tends to see <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/designing-deliberative-democracy/731C03A5DA5B3D6BC1CD910B0C9EF3D3">jury members as “just like me”</a>, which <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1933601">creates more trust</a> in the process. </p>
<p>But citizens’ juries have limitations. One is that the process has so far only included a handful of citizens at one time. And some critics will insist that only a vote in which all eligible voters can participate confers democratic legitimacy. This is where the referendum can be used as part of the deliberative democracy model.</p>
<p>Referendums can provide a neutral, democratically robust input into matters of public interest that politicians cannot resolve themselves. They can, for example, spur governments to act where a clear majority of the population has a considered view, but the government is divided and therefore powerless to act on that view. </p>
<p>Think of climate change mitigation, as well as other environmental matters such as coal seam gas mining and fracking.</p>
<p>But when a policy matter is put to a referendum or plebiscite – in which all eligible citizens could vote – it is a hard task to bring most of the people up to speed. It is far easier to inform people on a citizens’ jury, which might include just 50 people.</p>
<p>The conundrum is therefore that the citizens’ jury is deliberative but (<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jopp.12031">according to some</a>) democratically insufficient, while a referendum or plebiscite is more democratically robust but not always deliberative. But we can take useful steps toward making referendums or plebiscites more deliberative. </p>
<p>Around the world a number of academics, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2302915">including the author</a>, have proposed the “deliberative referendum”. Those who doubt referendums can be deliberative may prefer the term “informed referendum”.</p>
<h2>The deliberative/informed referendum</h2>
<p>Reforming a referendum or plebscite to make it more deliberative can be done through several methods – some already common. They include:</p>
<p><strong>Voting online or at computer voting stations,</strong> which is <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12243-016-0525-8">already in use in many places</a>. This can permit more interactive voting than a mere yes/no vote. In a new approach, before they could cast their votes, voters are asked to interact with a 15-minute tutorial informing them of the relevant issues. For instance, a vote on a local housing development plan would canvass environmental, economic and social arguments for and against greater urban density.</p>
<p><strong>Multi-option voting would depart from the traditional yes/no vote</strong>, presenting voters with <a href="https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2018AG0041-001071">several options</a> and avoiding the artificial reduction of complex matters into a binary choice. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Graeme_Orr/publication/29458173_Preferenda_the_Constitutionality_of_Multiple_Option_Referenda/links/53db0c9e0cf2a19eee8b4415">Preferential voting</a> could still allow a single option to emerge with majority support.</p>
<p><strong>Value-based voting could take place</strong>, meaning one set of ballot options put to voters would concern not just final choices, such as urban density levels adopted in a city plan, but also the values underlying them. Voters could rank values such as environmental sustainability and economic development. This would encourage voters to think more thoroughly about their final choices.</p>
<p><strong>Citizens’ juries should be held in the lead up to a referendum</strong>. This has happened in many cases, such as in the recent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/08/how-99-strangers-in-a-dublin-hotel-broke-irelands-abortion-deadlock">Irish abortion referendum</a>. A citizens’ jury could help to inform the broader public about the issues at stake. As a neutral body, the jury would write the questions on the ballot and the content of the information tutorials.</p>
<p><strong>An optional measure would be a political misinformation law</strong> enacted to prevent politicians and others from uttering false statements likely to mislead voters. This method has been common, most of all, in Australia. Granted, around the world it has been <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Law-of-Deliberative-Democracy/Levy-Orr/p/book/9780415705004">subject to challenges</a> under constitutional free speech and communication guarantees. But in Australia political misinformation laws were upheld by judges who cited the value of accurate information for voters.</p>
<p>Robust anti-misinformation laws would have been useful in the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign, which had a number of whoppers. For instance, campaigners <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-923X.12595">greatly overstated</a> the costs to the UK of both staying in and leaving the EU.</p>
<p>Referendums on <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-29/bill-shorten-renews-push-for-australia-to-become-a-republic/8754948">Australia becoming a republic</a>, and on <a href="https://www.peoples-vote.uk/">Brexit</a> (again), may be on the horizon. Other cases, such as the urban density example, are perennially unresolved matters in localities around Australia – in part because governments cannot decide whether to favour homeowners, developers, environmentalists or other groups. Even <a href="https://www.academia.edu/36678787/SHOTGUN_REFERENDUMS_POPULAR_DELIBERATION_AND_CONSTITUTIONAL_SETTLEMENT_IN_CONFLICT_SOCIETIES">societies experiencing war</a> often turn to referendums to try to jolt them out of their entrenched cycles of violence.</p>
<p>Referendums and plebiscites can be democratic circuit-breakers in a system of government that is in theory dedicated to serving the public, but that in <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-public-servants-dedicated-highly-trained-and-elitist-97691">many cases falls short</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-public-servants-dedicated-highly-trained-and-elitist-97691">Australia’s public servants: dedicated, highly trained ... and elitist</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Of course, there is still a risk the circuit-break may end up merely giving greater voice to a coarse populism, which knows it wants to tear down elitism and expertise, but not what to replace them with. However, work on deliberative referendum design suggests we needn’t be quite so fearful of populism. At least sometimes, and to some degree, populism can be remade so the public can have a more deliberative input into government decision-making.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109720/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ron Levy received Discovery Project funding from the Australian Research Council to research, among other topics, deliberation and the conduct of referendums. He has also written on these topics for the newDemocracy Foundation.</span></em></p>Populism can be benign and simply mean giving ordinary citizens more of a voice. But the nasty side that can lead to far-right groups gaining momentum could still be reined in. Here’s how.Ron Levy, Associate professor, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/765762017-06-07T02:24:20Z2017-06-07T02:24:20ZDeliberative democracy must rise to the threat of populist rhetoric<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166399/original/file-20170424-22270-1j9vug5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Can we avert a populist apocalypse through good old-fashioned deliberation?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nightfall404/14346785804/">Richard Hopkins/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/democracy-futures">Democracy Futures</a> project, a <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/democracy-futures/">joint global initiative</a> between The Conversation and the <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/">Sydney Democracy Network</a>. The project aims to stimulate fresh thinking about the many challenges facing democracies in the 21st century.</em></p>
<p><em>This piece is part of a series, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/after-populism-39385">After Populism</a>, about the challenges populism poses for democracy. It comes from a talk at the “<a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Populism-Symposium-6-April-2017.pdf">Populism: what’s next for democracy?</a>” symposium hosted by the <a href="http://www.governanceinstitute.edu.au">Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis</a> at the University of Canberra in collaboration with <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org">Sydney Democracy Network</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>We are “living in the end times”, or so <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/968-living-in-the-end-times">Slavoj Žižek</a> tells us. We have seen the arrival of the “four horsemen of the apocalypse”: the global ecological crisis, sharp inequalities in the economic system, the biogenic revolution, and exploding social divisions. </p>
<p>The global rise of populism, it seems, is only a symptom of these long-standing tragedies in the making.</p>
<p>Populist claims – the grand promises that prey on unrealistic expectations, those that dodge responsibility by conjuring “alternative facts”, and the kind that leaves citizens committed to the project of Enlightenment dazed and breathless — are both outcomes and drivers of Žižek’s apocalyptic vision.</p>
<p>How should we make sense of these realities? Wicked problems and intractable conflict have indeed marked the past few decades. But these have also been times of <a href="https://participedia.net/">widespread democratic experimentation</a>.</p>
<p>Participation in “traditional” politics such as <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/international/21716023-democracies-are-risk-if-young-people-continue-shun-ballot-box-millennials-across">voting</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-11/poll-data-reveals-waning-interest-in-politics/5662568">party membership</a> may be declining, but there has been an explosion of activities that seek to “<a href="http://realdemocracynow.com.au/page/3/">do democracy differently</a>”.</p>
<h2>The promise of deliberative democracy</h2>
<p>Deliberative democracy could once have been dismissed as pie in the sky with no bearing on the world of practical politics.</p>
<p>More recently, practitioners of deliberative innovations have generated compelling evidence to show the democratic virtues of <a href="http://realdemocracynow.com.au/1-1/">mini-publics</a>. These involve small(ish) groups of randomly selected citizens who meet several times to deliberate on an issue.</p>
<p>Random selection, similar to the logic of jury selection, underpins this process such that the forum represents a microcosm of the wider population. </p>
<p>In recent years, the case for mini-publics has been articulated more boldly, by <a href="https://penguin.com.au/books/against-elections-9781847924223">David van Reybrouck</a> and then, just this year, by <a href="https://unbound.com/books/the-end-of-politicians">Brett Hennig</a>. Both make a case for <a href="https://theconversation.com/democracy-is-due-for-an-overhaul-could-lawmaking-by-jury-be-the-answer-49037">sortition</a>, where a group of citizens drawn by lot are given a mandate to deliberate and propose, if not decide, policies that bind the rest of the polity.</p>
<p>Given the enthusiasm for mini-publics, why has this not been enough to avert “the apocalypse”? There are three ways of looking at this.</p>
<h2>1. We haven’t scaled up enough</h2>
<p>The application of mini-publics has been disparate, inconsistent and small-scale.</p>
<p>Had people, especially the so-called “pissed-off white men”, had more opportunities to participate in deliberation, they would have, potentially, taken a more complex view of issues that they feel threaten their identities, such as immigration or gay rights.</p>
<p>Had “smug cosmopolitan liberal types” engaged in deliberation with “pissed-off white men”, societies could have developed a shared vocabulary to cohabit a world with meta-consensus on the range of legitimate discourses.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166400/original/file-20170424-12468-1dagr55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166400/original/file-20170424-12468-1dagr55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166400/original/file-20170424-12468-1dagr55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166400/original/file-20170424-12468-1dagr55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166400/original/file-20170424-12468-1dagr55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166400/original/file-20170424-12468-1dagr55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166400/original/file-20170424-12468-1dagr55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forms of deliberative democracy are not only effective, but also much needed in deeply divided societies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joe Flood/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is evidence that mini-publics work in deeply divided societies. Examples include deliberative polls in <a href="http://participedia.net/en/cases/omagh-education-policy-omagh-northern-ireland">Northern Ireland</a> and deliberative forums involving ex-combatants and paramilitaries in <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Deliberation_Across_Deeply_Divided_Socie.html?id=uf4ovgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">Colombia</a>. </p>
<p>We can only wonder how the US elections or the UK’s Brexit referendum might have turned out had they convened a “deliberation day” where citizens deliberated systematically before the vote.</p>
<h2>2. We are scaling up incorrectly</h2>
<p>One could argue that mini-publics, by themselves, are not the answer to mass democracy’s legitimacy deficit. Even where well-resourced, excellently designed and high-quality deliberations unfold, these have little bearing if the epistemic gains and civic virtues developed in these forums do not spill over into the broader public sphere.</p>
<p>To scale up deliberation is not simply to host bigger mini-publics (mega-publics?) but to think of ways in which mini-publics can be <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11077-015-9238-5">linked to the broader public discourses</a>.</p>
<p>What use is it if we replace politicians with a randomly selected group of citizens if the public sphere is mostly still characterised by partisan point-scoring, cheap political tactics, spin-doctoring and market-driven media? </p>
<p>The reforms of deliberative politics must equally focus on reforming the broader structures that shape public discourse.</p>
<h2>3. Mini-publics are not the answer</h2>
<p>The logic of mini-publics primes participants to be respectful, public-spirited, other-regarding and open-minded. Unsurprisingly, citizens who harbour deep scepticism, strongly held views and defensiveness in their private interests may not find these forums to be the most understanding and supportive spaces. </p>
<p>In other words, mini-publics may have inherent limitations in processing populist rhetoric. This is because they, by design, aim to keep loud and insistent voices out of the room to celebrate the voice of the “average reasonable person”.</p>
<p>Discursive enclaves such as those found online, or in assemblies of populist supporters, may provide a more hospitable stage for impassioned, confrontational and sometimes bigoted discourses.</p>
<p>While mini-publics enable citizens to carefully reflect on their prejudices, one must take a step back and consider that some do not want to reconsider their views. </p>
<p>Research on climate change deniers provides evidence for this. Australian <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0963662511430459">studies</a> have revealed how deliberation not only <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-novel-idea-on-climate-change-ask-the-people-1962">fails to dispel scepticism</a> but also makes the deniers feel like they are not listened to, so they become more dogmatic and belligerent. </p>
<p>Other research <a href="https://lirias.kuleuven.be/handle/123456789/580046">data</a> demonstrate how people with a “social dominance orientation” tend to see participatory processes as rigged if the forums do not produce their preferred outcomes.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sG8gLt4GChg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">ABC’s Q&A often illustrates the limitations of some forms of deliberation.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The issue of trust compounds such alienation. Mini-publics typically rely on information presented by expert witnesses and resources persons, and we now know that many people have simply <a href="https://theconversation.com/britains-bregret-offers-timely-lessons-for-australian-voters-this-weekend-61806">had enough of experts</a>. </p>
<p>Beyond expertise, public trust in Australian politics and politicians is at a staggering low. Recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/now-for-the-big-question-who-do-you-trust-to-run-the-country-58723">research</a> suggests the public has little trust in any level of government in Australia. For the most part, mini-publics in Australia are instigated by or at least associated with government.</p>
<p>Even though the best-designed forums are independently organised and facilitated, we have to recognise that people may simply not trust the process, organiser or the expertise presented. “<a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2006.00612.x">Micro</a>” deliberative events don’t exist in a political vacuum. We cannot design out the broader context and power relations.</p>
<h2>How can things go right?</h2>
<p>There are many reasons to consider populist rhetoric as the opposite of deliberative reason. Populism appeals to base instincts. It sacrifices intellectual rigour and evidence to the promise of quick solutions. </p>
<p>The polarising speech style of populism creates information silos, which bond rather than bridge, opposing views. Inherent in the populist logic is the division of the “virtuous people” versus “the dangerous other”. This inflames prejudices and misconceptions, instead of promoting public-spirited ways of determining the common good.</p>
<p>Given the coming populist apocalypse, then, it is worth revisiting how deliberative democrats conceptualise power and its relationship to knowledge. </p>
<p>The populist moment reminds us of the insidious legacies of power, the kind we generally take for granted, but experience every day. Drawing on the “<a href="http://www.sunypress.edu/p-4439-race-and-epistemologies-of-igno.aspx">epistemologies of ignorance</a>”, the solution is not simply to offer facts, but to lay bare the structural phenomenon that disables people from seeing in a certain way. We undeniably find ourselves facing:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… an <a href="http://shifter-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/mills-white-ignorance.pdf">ignorance that resists</a> … an ignorance that fights back … an ignorance that is active, dynamic, that refuses to go away.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Deliberative democracy may have been the punching bag of those who remain sceptical of the virtues of participation governed by reason. But it has also been a beacon of hope for visionaries who keep on asking how we can make democracy better. </p>
<p>This field of democratic theory and practice has a lot more to offer, especially when we set our gaze towards spaces for reform beyond the forum.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Curato receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is currently a Discovery Early Career Research Award Fellow ((DE150101866),</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucy J Parry is affiliated with Participedia, a global project documenting democratic innovations around the world.</span></em></p>Populist politics would appear to have left deliberative democracy by the wayside, but innovations that engage citizens in reasoned decision-making have much to offer.Nicole Curato, Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis, University of CanberraLucy J Parry, Research Assistant, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/732082017-03-08T02:09:01Z2017-03-08T02:09:01ZHere’s how citizen power can drive mental health reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159876/original/image-20170308-14963-1rihxap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's time for citizen panels to have a say in how governments spend our health dollars.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/433251865?src=enAhC3v2ot74S_yEEv-iUQ-1-40&size=medium_jpg">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Citizen panels and juries around the world are having their say about how health funding is prioritised and allocated.</p>
<p>It’s time this happened in Australia, particularly when it comes to deciding how best to carve up Australia’s limited resources for tackling mental health.</p>
<p>This is because constructively engaging with the community this way is fundamentally transparent and democratic. The current system, of national and state governments making decisions about mental health funding in secret, is not.</p>
<p>So, what has the current system achieved? And how could citizen panels help do things better?</p>
<h2>Report after report</h2>
<p>Some 25 years of Australian mental health reform has mainly focused on a single goal: to make it possible for people with a mental illness to live well in the community. </p>
<p>Despite many plans and policies at <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/mental-pubs-f-plan09">national</a> and <a href="https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/mental-health/priorities-and-transformation/mental-health-plan">state</a> level, progress <a href="https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2009/190/4/mental-health-policy-stumbling-dark">is hard to see</a>. Mental health care in Australia has triggered 32 separate statutory inquiries <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/182790613?q&versionId=207723112">between 2006 and 2012 alone</a>. These inquiries typically conclude Australia’s mental health system remains <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Former_Committees/mentalhealth/report02/index">in crisis</a>. </p>
<p>Yet the community is almost completely excluded from the process of responding to mental illness. This is because the process of mental health reform has become mired in closed political and bureaucratic processes run under the auspices of the Australian health ministers’ <a href="http://www.coaghealthcouncil.gov.au/AHMAC/Principal-Committees">Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Principal Committee</a>.</p>
<p>These processes prioritise existing state and territory mental health services and discourage new models of care. These old state systems have demonstrated they cannot <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/mental-pubs-n-report13">lift the rate of access to mental health care</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps in an effort to re-energise reform and engage with the community, six of Australia’s nine jurisdictions have also recently implemented variations of a <a href="http://ro.uow.edu.au/smhpapers/194/">mental health commission</a>. And while the <a href="http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov.au/">National Mental Health Commission</a> has <a href="http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov.au/our-reports/contributing-lives,-thriving-communities-review-of-mental-health-programmes-and-services.aspx">prioritised</a> local planning and autonomy, this has not involved the community.</p>
<p>Most Australians are aware of the crisis in mental health and would not understand why governments have permitted ongoing neglect.</p>
<h2>How would citizen panels work?</h2>
<p>Building on <a href="http://www.newdemocracy.com.au/library/case-studies">experience from overseas</a>, citizen panels have <a href="http://www.newdemocracy.com.au/our-work">recently been used</a> in local and state government in Australia as a way of involving a wider range of people in the democratic process. </p>
<p>They involve a group of randomly selected people representing the broader community. People come together for about 50 hours, experts brief them, then citizens discuss the issues before recommending a course of action to government.</p>
<p>Health is no stranger to the idea of citizen-led planning. The <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/40254">World Health Organization</a> first proposed in 1954 to have citizens’ values drive health service decision-making. </p>
<p>The late Australian health economist <a href="https://croakey.org/let-citizens-juries-loose-on-the-nhhrc-recommendations-gavin-mooney/">Professor Gavin Mooney</a> ran <a href="http://www.newdemocracy.com.au/docs/researchpapers/Mooney_CJ_BookJanuary2010.pdf">seven citizen jury processes</a> in health care and concluded they were critical tools enabling Australian health planners to build effective service systems. </p>
<p>The disconnect in mental health is clear. Planners and funders keep providing more <a href="https://croakey.org/aihw-report-shows-mental-health-funding-priorities-wrong/">hospital-based services</a> despite the clear calls <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Former_Committees/mentalhealth/report/index">from the community</a> and <a href="https://mhaustralia.org/sites/default/files/imported/component/rsfiles/mental-health-services/Out_of_Hospital_Out_of_Mind.pdf">mental health consumers</a> for earlier intervention and non-hospital, community-based service alternatives.</p>
<p>The question for the jury would be for them to shape the key priorities for mental health reform over, say, the next decade.</p>
<h2>Not just health</h2>
<p>Mental health is a complex area of human behaviour and illness. So, the jury’s work would need to cover not just health (physical and mental, including the lived experience) but also issues of social engagement, employment, education and training, justice and housing. Expecting departmentalised approaches to manage this complexity is futile.</p>
<p>Reform of mental health should now be driven by a tiered process of structured community engagement. A national jury process would set out the priorities for overall systemic reform. These would then be considered by regional citizen juries across Australia, to tailor national priorities to local circumstances.</p>
<p>Opposition to citizen juries could come from some health bureaucrats who might be threatened by alternative and more inclusive deliberative discussions. But existing policy-making is <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Former_Committees/mentalhealth/report02/index">so ineffective</a> and the level of concern about mental health so great that such concerns are surmountable. </p>
<p>Some health professionals might also feel threatened at the thought of redesigning mental health services, though <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/disability_rights/notforservice/documents/NFS_Finaldoc.pdf">many agree</a> the system is broken.</p>
<h2>How might this work in practice?</h2>
<p>Here’s a concrete example of how citizen panels might work. The <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/1ED20240320A3A11CA257D9B007B31C6/%24File/mea334.pdf">National Mental Health Plan</a> proposed just 1% of the total mental health workforce be made up of people with mental illness employed to support others (known as the
<a href="http://nswmentalhealthcommission.com.au/mental-health-and/the-peer-workforce">peer workforce</a>).</p>
<p>When presented with the evidence about the effectiveness of peer workers, a citizen jury may find this target under-ambitious. It could identify successful models worth replicating, consider and recommend new approaches and also suggest a more appropriate workforce target to guide future action.</p>
<p>Rather than working in secrecy, the jury approach offers an inclusive and structured method to engage a cross-section of the community in shaping the nature of the mental health system. Experts would help this process; so would people with a mental illness and their carers. </p>
<p>Rather than the merry-go-round of reports, policies and inquiries mental health has endured over the past 25 years, the result would be a more stable and explicit platform to guide mental health reform, policy and funding. Politicians and decision-makers would welcome this stability.</p>
<p>There is already expertise <a href="http://www.newdemocracy.com.au/our-work">available in Australia</a> that could manage this kind of deliberative process, at no cost to government. The rhetoric in mental health focuses on putting the person at the centre of care. This proposal puts the community at the centre of mental health planning.</p>
<p>We urgently need a new, sensible conversation about mental health that does not begin with politics and end in frightening newspaper headlines and online disputes in the comments section. It needs to begin with the problem and what needs to be done.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73208/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sebastian Rosenberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Citizens do not have enough say in how mental health services are planned, funded and run in Australia. Here’s why that needs to change.Sebastian Rosenberg, Senior Lecturer, Brain and Mind Centre, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/719382017-03-01T02:57:05Z2017-03-01T02:57:05ZWhat would a wise democracy look like? We, the people, would matter<p>All governments would like to overcome impasses caused by contentious issues. Particularly when they turn into a political slanging match, the result is loss of money, time and public trust. </p>
<p>Take the decades-old, contentious dilemma in Western Australia of whether to build the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-11/roe-8-highway-extension-in-western-australia-explained/7923658">Roe 8 highway</a> through the <a href="https://thebeeliargroup.wordpress.com/">Beeliar</a> wetlands to reach Fremantle Harbour, or <a href="https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/greens-back-cockburn-port-ng-b88346805z">build a new harbour</a> in Cockburn, which would involve a different way to transport goods to port.</p>
<p>Communities are at loggerheads. The project affects some positively, some negatively. It’s now a key <a href="http://www.skynews.com.au/news/politics/state/2017/02/18/wa-labor-reaffirms-vow-to-scrap-roe-8.html">issue in the March 11 state election</a>; the incumbent Liberals will construct Roe 8, Labor will not. </p>
<p>Election analyst William Bowe <a href="http://www.afr.com/business/transport/trucking/road-planned-for-50-years-could-cost-west-australian-liberal-premier-colin-barnett-power-20170201-gu2v0o">notes</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s not really clear who it advantages and disadvantages, but it will be a big issue either way.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The democratic problem</h2>
<p>Communities feel like pawns in someone else’s game. What if governments applied more “power with” rather than “power over” the people? What if the people and communities involved learned to co-own the problem, co-design the solution and co-decide what to do?</p>
<p>Democracies everywhere are in trouble. Citizens are increasingly <a href="https://theconversation.com/now-for-the-big-question-who-do-you-trust-to-run-the-country-58723">losing trust</a> in politicians and democratic institutions. Precisely when far-reaching decisions need to be made (on issues such as climate change and inequality), democracies lack the public legitimacy to act effectively. </p>
<p>The political lurch to the right is one response – “we just need a stronger leader” – but this will lead us further away from a strong democracy. Instead, why not re-think and re-invent democracy?</p>
<h2>Creating a wiser democracy</h2>
<p>If democracy is “<a href="https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm">government of the people, by the people, for the people</a>”, then a wise democracy would involve the diversity of constituents in collaborative problem-solving, co-deciding and co-enacting ways forward.</p>
<p>This was the <a href="http://www.ancient.eu/Athenian_Democracy/">original democracy in Athens</a> and through Europe in the Middle Ages. Democracy was more than voting for politicians; it was a process for every major, difficult decision.</p>
<p>The appointment of public officials by “lot”, or lottery, was seen to be far superior democratically than by “election”, which was seen to be aristocratic. True, the Athenians limited citizenship to free, adult men, but the range of tasks given to citizens to resolve was remarkably broad. </p>
<p>Confidence was placed in people selected by lottery for at least three reasons. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>First, you got everyday people in the roles of public officials. </p></li>
<li><p>Second, with time and information to resolve an issue, these citizens developed useful solutions.</p></li>
<li><p>And, third, the more you did this, the more people got involved – strengthening democracy.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Nowadays we call this “<a href="http://deldem.weblogs.anu.edu.au/2012/02/15/what-is-deliberative-democracy/">deliberative democracy</a>”. It functions just as effectively today as it did 3,000 years ago (or better, since we no longer limit “citizenship” to adult men). Deliberative democracy stresses that if everyday people think a decision by politicians will affect them, then they should have the right to participate in making that decision.</p>
<p>Participation involves deliberation in an egalitarian and respectful environment. Disparate viewpoints are carefully considered, and a coherent/reasoned way forward is sought.</p>
<p>If all those affected cannot be involved, then a group that mirrors that population needs to be selected – one that is “descriptively representative” of the broader group. The best way to achieve that is via selection by lottery, or random selection.</p>
<p>For public participation in the process to be “meaningful”, governments need to commit to abiding by or being clearly influenced by citizens’ decisions. In short, a deliberative democracy process needs to be representative, deliberative and influential.</p>
<h2>Deliberative democracy works</h2>
<p>Deliberative democracy has been successfully applied across the globe. Examples include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="http://participedia.net/en/methods/participatory-consensus-conferences">The Danish Board of Technology</a> randomly selects citizens to deliberate technological issues involving ethical concerns to help draft legislation.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://participedia.net/en/organizations/world-wide-views-global-warming-overview-and-analysis">World Wide Views</a> randomly selected participants in countries across the globe to deliberate the topic of the forthcoming COP (UN Climate Change Conference), with their combined global report presented to the conference.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158008/original/image-20170223-6426-1nc2hq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158008/original/image-20170223-6426-1nc2hq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158008/original/image-20170223-6426-1nc2hq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158008/original/image-20170223-6426-1nc2hq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158008/original/image-20170223-6426-1nc2hq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158008/original/image-20170223-6426-1nc2hq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158008/original/image-20170223-6426-1nc2hq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158008/original/image-20170223-6426-1nc2hq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Oregon, a representative panel of citizens assesses proposals to be put to a public ballot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.indivisible.us/oregon-citizens-initiative-review/">healthydemocracy.org</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="http://participedia.net/en/methods/citizens-initiative-review">the Citizens’ Initiative Review</a> in Oregon, US, enables citizens selected by lottery to deliberate to develop the “for” and “against” cases for ballot measures, which are then distributed to voters so they have succinct, useful and trustworthy information.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://participedia.net/en/cases/we-citizens-ireland">Constitutional conventions</a> in Ireland and some European countries apply deliberative democracy processes to resolve constitutional issues.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.participatorybudgeting.org/">Participatory budgeting</a> in around 3,000 places across the globe empowers the people to allocate a portion (around 10%) of the budget. With citizens at the helm, community groups develop projects, local citizens vote on their preferred options, and the top priorities within the allocated budget are implemented.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Examples from Australia</h2>
<p>Australia is at the forefront of deliberative democracy reform, though its application has been scattered and not mainstreamed. Examples include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>In Western Australia in the early 2000s, a Labor minister, Alannah MacTiernan, led <a href="http://www.21stcenturydialogue.com/index.php?package=Initiatives&action=Index&static=">pioneering deliberative democracy processes</a> to resolve tough planning and infrastructure issues. These included <a href="http://participedia.net/en/cases/dialogue-city">Dialogue with the City</a>, Australia’s largest deliberation involving around 1,000 people, with continued public participation to develop a plan for the greater Perth metropolis. This was taken to cabinet, was accepted, and is still relevant today.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/citzens-juries-giving-power-to-the-people/5779168">Canada Bay</a>, New South Wales, <a href="http://participedia.net/en/cases/city-greater-geraldton-deliberative-participatory-budget">Greater Geraldton</a>, WA, and <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/experiment-pays-off-melbourne-peoples-panel-produces-robust-policy-20150628-ghzoz4.html">Melbourne</a>, Victoria, have pioneered participatory budgeting in Australia. The process empowers a random selection of the people to recommend the allocation of 100% of a city’s budget – operational and/or infrastructure. In each instance, the elected council supported all or most recommendations. Their constituents accepted often difficult decisions on service cuts and infrastructure changes without the usual uproar.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158007/original/image-20170223-6431-1ttz3i3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158007/original/image-20170223-6431-1ttz3i3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158007/original/image-20170223-6431-1ttz3i3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158007/original/image-20170223-6431-1ttz3i3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158007/original/image-20170223-6431-1ttz3i3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158007/original/image-20170223-6431-1ttz3i3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158007/original/image-20170223-6431-1ttz3i3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158007/original/image-20170223-6431-1ttz3i3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Participatory budgeting is a way for citizens – in this case New Yorkers – to help decide government spending priorities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/neotint/6267976938">Daniel Latorre/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<ul>
<li><p>Numerous Australia cities have implemented deliberative democracy initiatives, including issues such as <a href="http://www.newdemocracy.com.au/ndf-work/187-city-of-sydney-safe-vibrant-nightlife">urban planning</a>, <a href="http://www.newdemocracy.com.au/ndf-work/184-moorebank-intermodal-citizens-jury">transport</a>, <a href="http://www.newdemocracy.com.au/ndf-work/287-vichealth-victoria-s-citizens-jury-on-obesity-2015">health</a>, and <a href="http://www.newdemocracy.com.au/ndf-work/316-sa-cj-nuclear-fuel-cycle">waste and the environment</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>Research shows that local people trust the voice of recommendations from randomly selected people who deliberate over time, more than they trust the decisions of elected officials.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>What’s the obstacle to reform?</h2>
<p>So why isn’t deliberative democracy happening more often? Simple. Those in power are wary about sharing their power. </p>
<p>Unlike the Athenians, we don’t believe that every citizen is capable of participating in important decision-making. We assume most people are too self-interested to make decisions for the common good. </p>
<p>However, this is <em>not</em> the case, as deliberative democracy initiatives across the globe have consistently discovered. As the Athenians knew, everyday people can be entrusted to come to wise decisions <em>if</em> they are given comprehensive information and the time to deliberate.</p>
<p>Presumably, the WA election will resolve Roe 8 – for now. However, the cost will be far too high, including the “collateral damage” – environmental, economic, social and political. </p>
<p>What if the issue could have been resolved using “power with” rather than “power over”, with a bipartisan undertaking to abide by the recommendations of a deliberative democracy process? </p>
<p>For instance, 100-plus participants could have been selected by lottery to carefully deliberate over time the diverse viewpoints, the data and the trade-offs, knowing that their participation would be meaningful. By integrating social media and webcasting the deliberations, the process could have enhanced inclusiveness, transparency, public education and social capital. </p>
<p>Instead, we have a lose/lose situation – even the winners will be losers.</p>
<p>Governments for whom democracy equals voting squander their most important asset – public wisdom.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71938/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janette Hartz-Karp does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One reason Perth’s Roe 8 project is the subject of passionate protests is that it’s a case of a government asserting power over people rather than exercising power with local communities.Janette Hartz-Karp, Professor, Sustainability Policy Institute, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/596202016-07-19T00:28:36Z2016-07-19T00:28:36ZCity calls on jury of its citizens to deliberate on Melbourne’s future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130487/original/image-20160714-12380-qvuk08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In a citizens' jury, difficult issues are passionately but respectfully discussed by a cross-section of people from the community.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nhscitizen.org.uk/the-5-issues-selected-for-the-citizens-assembly-are/">NHS Citizen Assembly </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>A participating community is a thoughtful community, it is a purposeful community. </p>
<p>– Kate Auty, ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment and City of Melbourne Ambassador</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a political landscape where trust has been eroded and the public are for the most part <a href="https://theconversation.com/michelle-grattan-in-conversation-australian-voters-disengaged-and-disillusioned-60782">disengaged and disillusioned</a>, it is refreshing to see state and local governments leading in some areas of policy innovation. A prime example of this is the use of deliberative democracy approaches to support the development of policies and plans.</p>
<p><a href="http://deldem.weblogs.anu.edu.au/2012/02/15/what-is-deliberative-democracy/">Deliberative democracy</a> is not a new concept. It was developed in 1980, by <a href="https://www.cmc.edu/academic/faculty/profile/joseph-bessette">Joseph Bessette</a>, as a way of overcoming imbalances of power and conflicts between citizens and government decision-makers. Key components of this paradigm are citizens as an active part of decision-making, deliberation of issues, inclusion of marginalised citizens and consensus. </p>
<p>One of the most interesting approaches to emerge under this paradigm is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens%27_jury">citizens’ jury</a>. The City of Melbourne has just completed its second jury to refresh the <a href="http://participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au/future">Future Melbourne Strategy</a>. It <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/citizens'-jury-success-offers-fresh-hope-for-democratic-renewal/6589630">successfully conducted a citizens’ jury</a> in 2015 to develop <a href="http://participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au/10yearplan">a ten-year financial plan</a>.</p>
<p>Citizens’ juries bring together a group of randomly selected people to deliberate and make decisions that government bodies would traditionally have undertaken and led. Anna Coote and Jo Lenaghan <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=zkKxwj7z1l4C&pg=PA82&dq=%22informed+and+reflective+discussions+with+their+fellow+jurors%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQ_4_D0fHNAhXIEpQKHQnaAD0Q6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=%22informed%20and%20reflective%20discussions%20with%20their%20fellow%20jurors%22&f=false">describe the process</a> as follows:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… a citizens’ jury … is a deliberative process. Citizens reached informed conclusions based on evidence from expert witnesses, and informed and reflective discussions with their fellow jurors.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Australia, citizens’ juries have been used to tackle diverse issues such as <a href="http://lgpro.com/download/?RelatedLinkID=2839">climate change</a>, <a href="http://yoursay.sa.gov.au/decisions/sharing-our-roads-safely/about">road safety</a>, <a href="http://yoursay.sa.gov.au/decisions/citizens-jury-dog-and-cat-management/about">dog and cat management</a> and <a href="https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/programs-and-projects/victorias-citizens-jury-on-obesity">obesity</a>. The South Australian government has just convened a jury to discuss the <a href="http://yoursay.sa.gov.au/initiatives/citizens-jury">state’s role in the nuclear industry</a>. The Victorian government is in the process of convening two citizens’ juries to <a href="http://www.infrastructurevictoria.com.au/node/61">consider the state’s future infrastructure</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3DA4KIq-IiI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Victoria’s citizens’ jury on obesity considered the best ways to tackle the problem.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Driving the emergence of these juries is the recognition that governments need not just the support but the active participation of their communities to meet the increasingly complex challenges they face. It is a fundamental shift from decision-making for communities to community-led decision-making with government. </p>
<p>The recent process in Melbourne initially involved hundreds of people across the city as <a href="http://participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au/future/how-should-future-melbourne-vision-goals-and-priorities-be-refreshed-prepare-our-city-next-decade">ideas about Melbourne’s future were gathered</a> for a report. Fifty-two jury members then deliberated on this <a href="http://participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au/future">Bringing your Ideas Together Report</a> and the <a href="http://futuremelbourne.com.au/wiki/view/FMPlan">Future Melbourne strategy from 2008</a> to develop the refreshed Future Melbourne strategy. I attended the first and third days of this three-and-a-half-day deliberation as an invited observer.</p>
<h2>How the citizens’ jury works</h2>
<p>What is clear from the onset is that this process differs from the usual government consultation model; it places the jury participants firmly in the driver’s seat. What is discussed and how the final document is articulated and written are all at the jury’s discretion. </p>
<p>The carefully structured process ensures jury members are able to deliberate freely, are accountable for their decisions and are not subjected to pressure from other sources. There are strict rules about how observers and council representatives can interact with the jury during this process.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/building-and-development/urban-planning/city-wide-strategies-research/Pages/future-melbourne.aspx">Ambassadors</a> who are experts from industry, academia and government have been appointed to mentor and support the jury participants. One ambassador describes her role as a form of stewardship:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are there to guide people through the process, not to tell them what to do.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The ambassadors provide thought-provoking commentary throughout the process.</p>
<p>On the first day, participants are tentative and there is “a degree of suspicion”. You can see people testing to see if this is “just another PR exercise” and “if it is safe” for them to speak openly. It is not a comfortable space. Challenging questions are asked and the discomfort these generate is visible to everyone.</p>
<p>By day three, the space is still uncomfortable, but there is an acceptance of this. Difficult issues are passionately but respectfully discussed. No one person is allowed to dominate; smaller group exercises ensure all voices are heard. When a discussion becomes too heated it is shelved to allow time for reflection and then re-addressed.</p>
<p>Some issues are generation-specific. Younger jury members appear to occupy a difficult space where technology makes them vulnerable leaders who educate as well as deliberate. </p>
<p>Throughout all of this, the facilitators deftly keep the focus on completing the task at hand and finding “avenues for resolution”. It is relentless and exhausting to watch. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oDPT0O1rhSo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Future Melbourne
2026 citizens’ jury at work.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How do we assess the outcomes?</h2>
<p>At the end of the jury’s work, the participants I spoke with had a sense of achievement and exhilaration. One described the epiphany of another juror and a sense of connectivity and purpose, one spoke of the struggle and the joy, and another described the appreciation of being heard. A self-confessed “politically interested but personally disengaged” participant said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This process has built a different pathway between decision-makers and communities. It built trust. It was really worthwhile.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In an increasingly complex world in which communities often feel disconnected from government bodies, activities such as citizens’ juries offer a way to empower and re-engage communities as part of the political process. However, any trust created will be fragile at first. Its growth is dependent upon not only the continuation of processes such as these but also the actions that follow.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The video of the Future Melbourne jury became available and was added to this article after it was first published.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Celeste Young receives funding from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC.</span></em></p>A citizens’ jury has been working to refresh the Future Melbourne strategy. It’s part of a broader shift from government decision-making for communities to decision-making with communities.Celeste Young, Collaborative Research Fellow, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/564922016-04-07T20:08:33Z2016-04-07T20:08:33ZWhy we should design smart cities for getting lost<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116862/original/image-20160331-9712-11d9jym.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The 'Lose Yourself in Melbourne' ad was onto something: instead of being directed to the fastest or shortest route, some people might want to take a diverting detour.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jENsTGWzC3g">'It's Easy to Lose Yourself in Melbourne', Tourism Victoria</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The internet has reached our cities. A smart city is optimised for <a href="https://theconversation.com/want-the-economy-to-grow-its-time-to-look-at-cities-and-efficiency-54517">efficiency</a>, productivity and comfort. </p>
<p>The smart city uses <a href="https://theconversation.com/intelligent-infrastructure-when-roads-and-vehicles-talk-to-each-other-7865">intelligent transport systems</a>. It is administered by integrated <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/may/23/world-cup-inside-rio-bond-villain-mission-control">urban command centres</a>, which analyse the omnipresent raw material of the digital era: <a href="http://www.citiesofdata.org">big data</a>. As citizens go about their everyday lives, they leave data traces everywhere, <a href="http://underworlds.mit.edu">even in the sewers</a>.</p>
<p>Many technology companies and city governments celebrate the new <em>enfant terrible</em> of smart city research: the <a href="http://cusp.nyu.edu">urban scientist</a> who finally imposes a rigorous scientific (that is, positivistic) mindset on city governance. However, <a href="https://theconversation.com/big-data-algorithms-can-discriminate-and-its-not-clear-what-to-do-about-it-45849">Jeremy Kun</a> confirms that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… being quantitative doesn’t protect against bias.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Commentators such as <a href="http://catmatson.com.au/problem-smart-cities/">Cat Matson</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-themes-that-will-help-build-cities-designed-for-people-25525">Charles Landry</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/25/we-cant-allow-the-tech-giants-to-rule-smart-cities">Paul Mason</a> advocate a people-centred approach to city design. In <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/88937/">our own work</a>, we warn that ignoring decades of research by architects, geographers, urban planners, designers and sociologists could lead to a dystopian future where <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-anyone-asking-people-what-they-want-from-the-smart-cities-of-the-future-23855">humans lose agency</a> if we mindlessly pursue convenience and efficiency.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h1BQPV-iCkU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Wall-E presents a vision of a dystopian future created by techno-scientific determinism.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Algorithmic culture of like-mindedness</h2>
<p>Big data <a href="https://medium.com/futurists-views/algorithmic-culture-culture-now-has-two-audiences-people-and-machines-2bdaa404f643#.lw6bg0vz1">requires analysis by algorithms</a>, and they in turn create <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles">filter bubbles</a>. Corporations such as Facebook and Google deploy sophisticated algorithms to help us navigate the otherwise bloated social mediascape. The content displayed on Facebook’s news feed is selected based on a user’s profile, location, interests, online habits – what they post, share, recommend and “like”.</p>
<p>The popularity of social media stems from its power to create personalised spaces, <a href="http://readwrite.com/2015/05/13/walled-gardens-of-the-web/">walled gardens</a>, which are tailored to individual preferences and favour content <em>relevant</em> to each user. Proprietary algorithms determine what is deemed <em>relevant</em>.</p>
<p>Without <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism_ethics_and_standards">ethics</a>, it is these algorithms that determine the make-up of the Facebook news feed, Google’s top search results and the recommendations on whom to follow on Twitter and what to buy on Amazon. They are optimised to prioritise content that <a href="https://theconversation.com/algorithms-are-changing-business-heres-how-to-leverage-them-56281">generates more business</a>.</p>
<p>As Gilad Lotan <a href="https://medium.com/i-data/israel-gaza-war-data-a54969aeb23e">has observed</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’re not seeing different viewpoints, but rather more of the same. A healthy democracy is contingent on having a healthy media ecosystem. As builders of these online networked spaces, how do we make sure we are optimising not only for traffic and engagement, but also an informed public? … The underlying algorithmics powering this recommendation engine help reinforce our values and bake more of the same voices into our information streams. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The diversity advantage of cities</h2>
<p>As more and more social media platforms embrace urban environments <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/39160/">as their playground</a>, this algorithmic culture has important implications for cities. </p>
<p>People come together in cities not just for the infrastructure and convenience they provide, but for offering choice. Cities are fundamentally about <a href="http://charleslandry.com/panel/wp-content/themes/twentyeleven/books/The-Intercultural-City.pdf">possibilities, opportunities and diversity</a>.</p>
<p>Jane Jacobs <a href="http://www.pps.org/reference/jjacobs-2/">notes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ethan Zuckerman <a href="http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2011/05/12/chi-keynote-desperately-seeking-serendipity/">thinks of cities as serendipity engines</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>By putting a diverse set of people and things together in a confined place, we increase the chances that we’re going to stumble onto the unexpected.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, Zuckerman also asks:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… do cities actually work this way?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s a timely question for smart cities governed by big data and algorithmic analysis. How can a smart city become a serendipity engine? Can we design smart cities for getting lost?</p>
<p>Here are some examples of why that may not be such a bad idea.</p>
<h2>Getting lost and getting to know strangers</h2>
<p>Public transport journey planners are usually optimised for two factors: the fastest speed and shortest distance to get you from A to B. Yet there are <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/54029/">opportunities beyond telematics</a>.</p>
<p>Why don’t we offer the choice to go slow, to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-152-0.ch028">take the least polluted route</a> to work, or the scenic way home?</p>
<p>Experimental prototypes such as Martin Traunmueller’s <a href="http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2016/02/this-app-will-turn-you-into-an-urban-wanderer/470577/">Likeways</a> and Mark Shepard’s <a href="http://serendipitor.net/">Serendipitor</a> allow you to lose yourself and rediscover your city.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116735/original/image-20160330-28459-7cw45p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116735/original/image-20160330-28459-7cw45p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116735/original/image-20160330-28459-7cw45p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=262&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116735/original/image-20160330-28459-7cw45p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=262&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116735/original/image-20160330-28459-7cw45p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=262&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116735/original/image-20160330-28459-7cw45p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116735/original/image-20160330-28459-7cw45p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116735/original/image-20160330-28459-7cw45p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Likeways app lets users choose routes that wander past restaurants, pubs, shops, museums or art galleries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/likeways/id1054718491?mt=8">Screenshot, courtesy Martin Traunmueller</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition to a diversity of places, cities also offer a diversity of people. However, all too often we stay within our existing social networks of friendship and convenience. Eric Paulos’s <a href="http://www.paulos.net/research/intel/familiarstranger/">Familiar Stranger Project</a> investigated anxiety, comfort and play in public places.</p>
<p>Yet our ability to unlock the advantage of a city’s social diversity is still in its infancy. Early examples include <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/83742/">co-working spaces and meet-up groups</a> that bring diverse people together, airlines offering <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_seating">social seating</a>, and design interventions such as <a href="http://www.alphr.com/games/1003052/jokebox-aims-for-eye-contact-in-a-city-full-of-screens">Jokebox</a> that foster playfulness and curiosity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116739/original/image-20160330-28445-1vk8eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116739/original/image-20160330-28445-1vk8eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116739/original/image-20160330-28445-1vk8eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116739/original/image-20160330-28445-1vk8eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116739/original/image-20160330-28445-1vk8eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116739/original/image-20160330-28445-1vk8eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116739/original/image-20160330-28445-1vk8eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116739/original/image-20160330-28445-1vk8eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Co-working spaces aim to spark creativity and innovation by bringing diverse people together.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thehub/12913967493">flickr/Impact Hub</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/nov/24/who-owns-our-cities-and-why-this-urban-takeover-should-concern-us-all">Saskia Sassen</a> warns that the privatisation of public spaces in the city:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… has deep and significant implications for equity, democracy and rights.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This also stifles innovation, as people are lacking the kinds of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-an-innovation-skunkworks-51326">skunkworks</a>” that foster creativity and diversity.</p>
<h2>Deliberative democracy and the city</h2>
<p>Besides the nascent opportunities vested in people and places, what may well be the final frontier of a truly smart (as in intelligent) city is content and discourse. Seeking to burst the <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles">filter bubbles</a>, Eli Pariser created <a href="http://www.upworthy.com/about">Upworthy</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… on a mission to change what the world pays attention to.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It curates news you should read rather than just “<a href="http://www.apple.com/news/">the news you want</a>” to read.</p>
<p>Another illustrative example is Rebecca Ross’s project <a href="http://www.londonischanging.org">London is Changing</a>. Large digital displays visualise local community voices and juxtapose diverse opinions about the impact of gentrification in London.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116845/original/image-20160330-28436-1wfxgxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116845/original/image-20160330-28436-1wfxgxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116845/original/image-20160330-28436-1wfxgxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116845/original/image-20160330-28436-1wfxgxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116845/original/image-20160330-28436-1wfxgxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116845/original/image-20160330-28436-1wfxgxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116845/original/image-20160330-28436-1wfxgxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116845/original/image-20160330-28436-1wfxgxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A digital billboard displays local community voices and diverse opinions about gentrification in London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.londonischanging.org/">London is Changing</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To uphold a <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/78107/">citizen’s right to the digital city</a> and strengthen the role of <a href="https://theconversation.com/cities-in-the-future-of-democracy-16688">cities in a deliberative democracy</a>, cities should empower <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/85019/">citizens to be smart</a>. Smart cities should allow us to get lost and find new places, to meet strangers who may become new friends, and to engage in discussions with diverse others so we may form new opinions.</p>
<p>Alexandros Washburn <a href="http://commonedge.org/when-all-is-optimized/">observes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In talking about the anticipational smart wonders of ‘our city’, we really mean ‘my city’. We confuse the collective with the personal.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If the collective that is <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2856428.2856430">civic intelligence</a> is what makes cities smart, we need more serendipity engines. Smart cities should be <a href="http://oascities.org">open and agile</a> and employ what Bob Dick calls “<a href="http://www.aral.com.au/resources/dialectic.html">dialectical processes</a>” and what Anna Cox calls “<a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/uclic/research/CHI2016/Cox.CHI.2016.pdf">design friction</a>”.</p>
<p>That way we may change algorithmic filters for the sagacious discovery of diversity in the city. Diversity fuels innovation, and innovation is what we need <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-an-innovation-skunkworks-51326">to be sustainable</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56492/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcus Foth receives research funding from the Australian Research Council's Linkage Projects funding scheme, and the Australian Government's Low Income Energy Efficiency Program. He is a member of the Queensland Greens and was their 2015 Queensland State Election candidate for Mount Isa.</span></em></p>If smart cities run on big data and algorithms that channel only ‘relevant’ information and opinions to us, how do we maintain the diversity of ideas and possibilities that drives truly smart cities?Marcus Foth, Professor of Urban Informatics, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/507682015-11-17T02:23:49Z2015-11-17T02:23:49ZOnce Suu Kyi takes power, her party will need to re-engage the people to manage sky-high hopes<p><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11685977">Aung San Suu Kyi</a> has just had a resounding <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-15/myanmar-president-vows-smooth-handover-after-suu-kyi-poll-win/6942906">election victory</a> in Myanmar. Her National League for Democracy (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_League_for_Democracy">NLD</a>) has won control of the parliament, despite the constitution granting <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33547036">25% of seats</a> to unelected military representatives. </p>
<p>By winning <a href="http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/election-2015/live-blog.html">more than 80% of the popular vote</a>, the NLD has <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-13/suu-kyi-claims-myanmar-election-victory/6939524">secured a majority</a> in both houses of parliament – although sitting members remain in office <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34830284">until the end of January</a>. Suu Kyi will be able to name the next president and control the legislative process.</p>
<p>Reforming the constitution – which includes a provision that <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-10/myanmar-election-explained/6928542">bars Suu Kyi from being president</a> – will be far more difficult. She nonetheless has the real potential to deliver significant change.</p>
<h2>Democratic transition presents huge challenges</h2>
<p>Sitting on plastic chairs literally on the side of the road, sipping tea and talking with local community leaders the day after the election, the challenges confronting the new government became very apparent to us. Poverty and underdevelopment are <a href="http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/myanmar">deeply entrenched</a>, but everyone was adamant that democracy would lead to radical improvements in their lives and transform the country.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102105/original/image-20151117-4970-17po3tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102105/original/image-20151117-4970-17po3tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102105/original/image-20151117-4970-17po3tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102105/original/image-20151117-4970-17po3tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102105/original/image-20151117-4970-17po3tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102105/original/image-20151117-4970-17po3tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102105/original/image-20151117-4970-17po3tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102105/original/image-20151117-4970-17po3tm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Myanmar is one of the world’s poorest countries, but people expect the election result to transform their lives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The scale of the NLD victory reflects the expectations the people have of Suu Kyi, her party and democracy. Such expectations are totally unrealistic. No leader and no party could deliver what the people expect, certainly not in a single term of office. </p>
<p>Adding to the challenge, almost all the NLD politicians are new to politics. They have no experience of policy development and parliamentary processes, and will be paid extremely low salaries. Further, because of the restrictions on the party and need to focus on the election, the NLD has developed little by way of <a href="http://www.irrawaddy.org/election/news/principle-over-detail-in-nld-election-manifesto">detailed policy</a>.</p>
<p>This could be a real problem for the party and lead to significant disillusionment before the next election in five years. However, the NLD could also turn this into a strategic advantage through extensive consultation, which would demonstrate real interest in the people’s needs and opinions.</p>
<h2>What do the people expect?</h2>
<p>We were in Myanmar for the elections as international observers. We then spent the week after election day conducting research in poor rural communities in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakhine_State">Rakhine State</a>, in the country’s north-west. Gaining access through local civil society activists we have worked with for several years, we held open meetings in numerous communities. We had discussions with some 600 community leaders and members across five local government areas (townships) in Rakhine.</p>
<p>A clear picture emerged: communities have great faith that Suu Kyi will deliver democracy and rule of law, and that this will greatly improve their material and economic lives. But it was also very clear that the people have little idea of democratic process, what democracy can deliver or how. The comments people made were all “motherhood statements” based on political slogans. </p>
<p>No-one we spoke with had ever had personal contact with political representatives. And no-one felt they could share their perspectives or advocate for change. </p>
<p>When asked what advice they would give to their political representative if they visited the community, or their leaders were invited to speak to the politician, we were repeatedly met with either silence or laughter, and a lack of ideas. Partly this reflects the status difference they would feel in such an encounter, but on other questions they all had a passion for engagement. </p>
<p>People had lots of views on local priorities and needs. When asked what needs of their village and region they would tell their politician about, they very quickly and animatedly created a wishlist. This included education, health, transport (especially new roads), electricity and clean drinking water services. </p>
<p>Meeting these pressing demands from tens of millions of people across the country, all in the space of a five-year electoral term, is beyond plausibility.</p>
<p>The conclusion we drew from the week is that the people have high expectations of democracy but do not understand the political process. They have a big wishlist of local needs but feel disconnected from politics and politicians. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102110/original/image-20151117-4956-1m59yby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102110/original/image-20151117-4956-1m59yby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102110/original/image-20151117-4956-1m59yby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102110/original/image-20151117-4956-1m59yby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102110/original/image-20151117-4956-1m59yby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102110/original/image-20151117-4956-1m59yby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102110/original/image-20151117-4956-1m59yby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102110/original/image-20151117-4956-1m59yby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The authors’ meetings with communities in Rakhine State revealed that the people have high hopes for democracy but little idea of how it works.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Deliberative democracy can bridge the gaps</h2>
<p>A process of <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/019925043X.001.0001/acprof-9780199250431">deliberative democracy</a> (also known as participatory or discursive democracy) could engage the population in policy development. It would also give the new government additional time to deliver tangible changes, by building goodwill and extending the social and electoral licence to pursue orderly transformation of the state and economic development.</p>
<p>The idea of deliberative democracy argues for the right, capacity and need for anyone subject to a decision to participate in consequential deliberation before that decision is made. “Consequential” here means their deliberation must have influence in the decision-making.</p>
<p>It therefore requires direct deliberation between government and citizens. This involves a reasoned debate in the public sphere, including participation by civil society networks. Importantly, this must occur during the policy development phase, preceding formal policy decision-making.</p>
<p>After extensive study of comparative democratisation in the 20th century, <a href="http://readinglists.ucl.ac.uk/items/FD1E7B54-E124-4992-2BB3-39E700BB7754.html">Guillermo O'Donnell</a> likewise concludes that the quality of democracy depends very largely on the empowerment of citizens as agents in public debate. This in turn requires the universal provision of basic human rights and training to develop capabilities. </p>
<p>The NLD is well placed to take this sort of approach in Myanmar. By doing so, the new government can turn its potential weakness in policy development into a strength. </p>
<p>Giving people a voice through widespread community consultations during the policy development phase will improve the outcomes. It will also help the people understand the competing demands on limited resources and be more patient. When people participate in decision-making, they are more likely to bear with the process longer. </p>
<p>Instead of potentially facing mass disillusionment at the end of its first term in office, if the new government starts with widescale public consultation and engagement in policy development, the NLD could extend its mandate for change and deliver more extensive social, political and economic transformation of Myanmar.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50768/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Ware was a volunteer international election observer for the Myanmar elections, with the APHEDA/Australia Myanmar Institute delegation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ronan Lee was a volunteer international election observer for the Myanmar elections, with the APHEDA/Australia Myanmar Institute delegation.</span></em></p>Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD has won Myanmar’s elections in a landslide, but must lead the transition to democratic rule carrying the hopes of tens of millions of voters who expect life to be transformed.Anthony Ware, Senior Lecturer in International & Community Development, Deakin UniversityRonan Lee, PhD Candidate, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.