True Democracy
Author: Steven Briggs
What NEED does this meet?
True democracy driven by the people, not party politics
What is the APPROACH?
My proposal is E-Voting on the issues but with a differnece
The votes should be displayed live in the House of Commons on screens and MP’s should be able to drill down on touch screens to their constituency to see the level of support for specific measures.
The results of both should be published (say on publicwhip or hansard)so everyone can see how their MP votes against public opinion in their region.
The reason I propose this rather than an outright democracy is that I still believe we need MP’s to consider the wider issues and ignore lobbying when it is just effective lobbying but not reflective of common thought.
Consider a vote of pay no tax, everyone would say yes….not ideal.
So, with this hybrid we can get a consensus of how MP’s voted, they should have the ability to add notes why they voted against the population etc.
When results are collated between electorate and MP voting results, we can collaborate on whether democracy or politics are prevailing.
This could eventually end “party” politics and move us towards a true democracy.
But of course……we need safeguards! Maybe we should ALL vote on them.
I would propose that active voters earn “voting points” depending on the number of acts they have voted on, this could go some way towards lobying enacting acts against the public interest.
Policy should be driven by think tanks that work closely together, appointments to the think tanks should be from current MP’s on a volunteer basis and voted on by the population
This, I think, Is a move towards true democracy. We can all vote on the focus of the country, be it education etc etc. We can all vote on where funds are funnelled.
What are the BENEFITS to people?
The benefits are that we have a democracy led by the people instead of parties. This does away with the constant media reliance on sleaze. The people are to blame collectively. When the blame game is out of the way we can concentrate on running the country the way citizens want it to be ran.
What is the COMPETITION?
No other country runs a true democracy, this will end party politics and put government in the hands of the people. It is only now that we have the technology to enable true democracy and we should grasp it.
We really can be become a country led by it’s citizens
What BUDGETS & LOGISTICS are required?
Very easy, the important thing is ensuring that everyone has access to vote. This could be done either over the net or on freephone telephone numbers. Each registered voter should have a unique id. The votes should be televised on Parliament live, so everyone can see what the public opinion is and how the vote goes.
I think ALL decision-making should be made under a true democracy! This would be a mountain of work for all UK citizens, but would reduce the oligarchical power of the parliamentary position – and would turn the government into what it should be – a servant of the people – by receiving issues sent by citizens, raising each publicly, honestly and openly in turn (with 100% clarity and transparency), getting citizens to vote on the issues, and then simply posting the results. If everybody got involved with this, we would have a system that would bring the concept of democracy out of myth and into the real world!!!
I also think ALL decision making should be done by the people. I do not see any need for politicians in this day and age. All politicians are suceptible to being ‘persuaded’ and it seems that the minority groups who shout the loudest have the most power. It would empower the vast, currently silent, majority and I don’t think we would all vote for no taxes as we all want services. HOWEVER it would probably mean the end of huge amounts of public money being wasted on foriegn wars and public white elephants!