Developing more effective forms of democracy.
Democracy is meant to offer society a peaceful way to make collective decisions, when otherwise we could get stuck in ruinous inertia, slide into violent conflicts, or have some form of authoritarian rule imposed on us. But even in countries with the essential framework of a multi-party electoral system, democracy does not always function as well as it should.
Citizens can hardly be said to have a meaningful role in shaping public affairs when so many are uninformed or misled about key issues, so deeply divided that they cannot work towards any common interests, or unable to count on fair and accountable processes for taking on board their views. We need to work towards a more effective form of democratic arrangements. We need to bring about citizen democracy – meaning a dynamic form of democracy in which people can share power equitably and engage on an informed and inclusive basis in cooperative problem-solving.
Citizen democracy is relevant not just in the context of a sovereign state; but also in the running of a city or a neighbourhood; in schools or housing associations; in community groups or NGOs; in trade unions or businesses; and in international government institutions. At all levels of society, unless we can together develop solutions that reflect our shared understanding of how to respond to the social, economic, political, and environmental problems facing us, those problems may end up being dealt with in ways that are driven by ignorance or vested interests.
In order to develop citizen democracy, it is vital that its key ingredients are better understood, widely promoted, and increasingly adopted. To this end, we aim to provide pointers and resources that are easy to use and share. We will set out the main factors that should be addressed, show how they relate to current issues and the latest findings, and draw conclusions about action in communities, institutions and public policies.
Our long-term goal is to show how improvements to democratic infrastructure and engagement can enable citizens to have an informed influence over wider decisions that affect them, and experience the meaningful difference they can make. This will contribute to societal problem-solving, countering inequalities, and displacing antagonism by cooperation.
A. Civic Togetherness
[1] Community development and common purpose.
[2] Cohesion, diversity, and tackling discrimination.
[3] Rights & responsibilities of democratic citizenship.
B. Informed Deliberations
[4] Political education, lifelong learning in democracy, and learning through participation.
[5] Expert assessment, objective investigation, and impartiality in public discourse.
[6] Regulation of irresponsible communication.
C. Shared Power
[7] Subsidiarity and development of participatory decision-making.
[8] Curtail civic disparity in the ability to vote and influence others’ votes.
[9] Fortification of public accountability of electoral arrangements and office holders.
The ideas and practices associated with the notion of citizen democracy have been developed over time by a wide range of thinkers. These include Tom Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Jefferson, J. S. Mill, Alexis de Tocqueville, Giuseppe Mazzini, Emile Durkheim, L. T. Hobhouse, John Dewey, Jane Addams, Mary Parker Follett, Hannah Arendt, Paulo Freire, Karl Popper and Benjamin Barber, among others. Their writings explore how in different organisational settings, people can connect with each other and their collective decision-making arrangements in ways that would bring about outcomes that reflect their informed deliberations.
Henry Tam: author and editor of over a dozen books on politics and public policy; former Head of Civil Renewal under the Labour government; and former Director, Forum for Youth Participation & Democracy, University of Cambridge.
Gabriel Chanan: social researcher; former Director of Research & Policy at the Community Development Foundation; adviser on community involvement to the Home Office and DCLG (2005-8); produced pioneering EU research projects on urban regeneration.
Helena Kettleborough: lecturer in sustainability at the Manchester Metropolitan University; author of Journey to Hopeful Futures; and former Director of North West Together We Can.
Diane Warburton: founding Trustee and now Fellow of Involve; lead on 20 evaluations of major national deliberative and community programmes for national government departments and NGOs; author of guides to evaluating participation in national policy making including Quality in Public Dialogue; author of Community and Sustainable Development and From Here to Sustainability.
