Con/Libdems fail democracy exam. Remedy outlined

[I&R ~ GB]

*INIREF COMMENT (1) on Conservative/Liberal-Democrats' failure to
legislate for effective, user-friendly democracy. With a suggested remedy.*

Many things need to be done to improve our democracy. This article (1)
looks at e-petitions, in this case perhaps better dubbed a hybrid of
citizens' proposition (initiative) and mass petition. What is the
context in which this apparently minor reform, or gimmick, may be located?

Attempts by the current coalition to reform democracy have so far been
ill thought through, remote from theory, formulated apparently in haste
and in ignorance of experience made in other countries where democracy
is more advanced.

The Coalition has fumbled with democracy in local government. Their
showpiece proposal was in the "community empowerment" section of the
Localism Bill. This promised that local people would be able to put
forward a proposal and call a poll on any local issue (among issues
within the remit of the Council). The ease of triggering such a poll was
debated in Parliament, with a range of hurdles from between 5 and 30
percent of eligibly voters being suggested. Protests were received by
the government from builders, developers and local authority
associations that the reforms might allow voters to adversely influence
their profits and plans. Finally this Autumn the LibDems in the House of
Lords, with the agreement of the Communities minister and no hint of
protest from Her Majesty's opposition, scuttled the "community
empowerment" section. Sunk it in the Thames.

The Conservative/Liberal-Democrat 2010 coalition agreement contains the
following clear statement, p. 27,
“We will give residents the power to instigate local referendums on any
local issue.”

What will the Coalition do for democracy in central governance?

In Autumn 2009 at an early hustings-style meeting David Cameron promised
that he would introduce citizen-initiated referendum both at local and
national levels.

In contrast the Coalition agreement offers only a weaker sort of
participation, rather than the direct democracy waved tauntingly to
potential voters by David Cameron: "We will ensure that any petition
that secures l00,000 signatures will be eligible for formal debate in
Parliament. The petition with the most signatures will enable members of
the public to table a bill eligible to be voted on in Parliament."

Comparative study of modern democracy shows that the best option is a
combination of "representative" democracy with elements of effective
electoral participation and control such as the citizens' proposition
and optional veto referendum. Our chances of moving towards this optimum
with the ruling coalition now in November 2011 look very slim.

The debacle of the Localism Bill has shown that democracy is far too
important to be included in a bill which contains many other topics with
no direct connection to the regulation of democratic governance.
Further, the quality of content and debate about this legislation in and
around Parliament, taken together with the sham-quality of democracy
introduced as "e-petition" show that for our political rulers and elites
a rapid programme of learning about modern democracy is urgently needed.
Such a learning process could be usefully stimulated by the public
presentation of a law proposal dedicated to the introduction of
effective political participation by citizens. Such a law proposal, a
basis for what might come to be termed The Democracy Bill, should
establish principles of democratic governance and for all levels of
public governance from parish to central state contain proposals which:

1) Establish or re-affirm the constitutional base of electoral action,
by ruling that all political and constitutional power in the state stems
from the people. This power can be exercised by electing candidates and
in legally binding ballots on public matters.
2) Introduce facilitatory ground rules for several instruments of
citizen-initiated democracy such as:
2.1) citizen law-proposal which can lead to legally binding ballot
2.2) citizen-initiated referendum with which law made by Parliament and
policy of government can be blocked, vetoed, revoked or changed.
2.3) elector-initiated procedure to recall an elected Member of
Parliament, assembly or council and other publicly elected official.
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1. A REPLY TO:

E-petitions, meant to be a force for good that reconnected people and
politics and helped to restore public confidence, may end up doing
exactly the opposite Editorial The Guardian, Thursday 17 November 2011
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/17/e-petitions-the-peoples-voice>


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I&R ~ GB Citizens' Initiative and Referendum
Campaign for direct democracy in Britain
http://www.iniref.org/