Jan. 25, 2012 - Issue #849: Blind Date

Stuck in a rut

Democracies need a new way of doing things

Established democracies appear to be stuck in a rut. As oppressed populations across the world look to achieve the ability to choose their governments, Western populations are attempting to discover new ways to improve citizen participation and engagement with a democratic process that has lost the confidence of its participants. With 41 percent of Albertans turning out to the last provincial election and 56.4 percent to the last federal election, half of the population is just not showing up. And it's more than voter turnout that makes a democracy: in the years between elections opportunities exist for citizens to change the way government policy is created. Formal government consultations, local town halls, even community league meetings, exist for citizens to have their input in a process that can be too easy to ignore.
"What we think of as electoral democracy has lower standards if you will. All that is required is that youhave free and fair elections," says John Gastil, a professor in the department of communication at the University of Washington and author of the recent book The Jury and Democracy: How jury deliberation promotes civic engagement and political participation. "We hope that within that system voters go through a reasonable process of making choices and that representatives go through a process of making reasonable process."
Gastil believes delibrative democracy, though difficult, is a process that could greatly improve citizens' direct participation in decision-making. "Delibrative democracy requires people think about the choices they have and think of alternative points of view; that they come to understand the arguments on both sides," says Gastil. The process would have to accommodate a greater degree of public debate, while also empowering those with marginalized viewpoints to express their ideas.
While some think this sounds like an idealized version of democracy, Gastil believes it's not as unachievable as some may think. "We use deliberative processes all the time in our jury process," he says. "The jury system asks for exactly these things. We work the trial to bring forth arguments from both sides, we have rules of decorum and we turn it over to a group of random citizens who are asked to deliberate.
"When a jury is hung, the judge advises, 'Look I want you to look harder into this, but I want to say to those who are in the minority you have a responsibility to go along with your own independent judgement,'" Gastil continues. "It's an important argument because we have to encourage those with an extreme point of view to bring their view forward."
Gastil is in town courtesy of the Centre for Public Involvement—a joint inititiative by the City of Edmonton and the University of Alberta to create an independent organization studying best practices for public engagement.
"Citizens are looking for new ways to be inolved, decision makers are looking for new ways to involve citizens," says Fiona Cavanaugh, project manager at the Centre. "The public is looking for better and different ways to be involved. Governments are wanting to not have just the usual suspects to show up and to engage different technology to bring people in."

Part of the problem in democratic governments today is overcoming the negative perception public engagement has gathered. "There's a lot of sense that there is voting decline, lack of transparency," says Cavanaugh. "That's one of the main issues: that there is skepticism or that there aren't a lot of peopl engaged in the process."
But Gastil believes there are recent examples of democracies integrating new approaches to genuine citizen engagement rather than simply consultation.
The Citizens' Initiative Review is a panel of randomly selected but demographically reflective citizens gathered to evaluate the merits of questions on state-wide ballots. Each new measure that is brought forward requires a new round of citizens to gather and discuss the initiative. The citizens hear from both sides of the campaign, as well as policy experts, and then their evaluations are included in the ballot package as information for consideration when Oregonians vote.
"They attempted to put deliberation in the process," says Gastil. "What's exciting to the average voter is that you can go to that page and get a fair analysis instead of the millions of dollars in advertising from one side of the campaign. You get to hear what your average citizen analyzed."
Started in 2009, the CIR was a pilot initiative in 2010 and legislators in a bi-partisan house are working to make the initiative a permanent part of Oregon elections.
Gastil also points to BC citizens who gathered to change the way elections function in their province with the Citizens' Assembly for Electoral Reform. "Ultimately it failed because they made the approval rate 60 percent," says Gastil. "But they established the precendent that a group of strangers can come up with a reasonable recommendation over a weekend that can be voted on."
Initiatives in Brazil and India focus on the ability of citizens to functionally contribute to the formation of the budget. "Local communities have smaller meetings and then send delegates up to the next level," says Gastil. "And they have real power so they can veto the municpial budget."
Gastil believes it's truly exciting that these initiatives have been initiated across party lines. "In Brazil, what caused all this to happen was constitutional change. People interpreted the constitution to mean you must have participatory budgeting. In India it was a left-wing political party. In BC it was a right-of-centre government; Oregon it was a perfectly divided legislature."
Gastil and Cavanaugh believe these initiatives are growing in popularity as well. "It's a really exciting international field," says Cavanaugh. The Centre for Public Involvement has been in the works for the past two years and will launch once formally approved by the City and the University administration. "It's really exciting that the city and the university want to work together; there's no other example of this."

 

PREVUE / DEMOCRACY'S FUTURE
Four glimpses of democracy's future
Thu, Feb 2 (7:30pm)
University of Alberta
Tory Lecture B-1
Free

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