Democracy has no clothes
Experiments with citizens’ juries point to a better way of
making decisions.
By PATRICK
CHALMERS 12/13/18, 10:32 AM CET
Updated 12/17/18, 5:43 AM CET
In France, Yellow Jacket protesters have taken umbrage at
years of perceived neglect |
TOULOUSE, France — In the Danish fable “The Emperor’s New
Clothes,” it was a little boy who pointed out what no adult dared expose: The
king was naked; his court, a cast of pompous fools beguiled by tricksters.
It’s time to do the same with our own reified system of
government — representative democracy and its so-called free and fair
elections.
Shocking? Of course it is. We’ve been taught to hold our
voting rights as sacred — that despite our political system’s many flaws,
representative democracy is, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, “the worst form
of government, except for all the others.”
But what if there were, after all, a real alternative? What
if there were something less corruptible than pure democracy by election? That
something needn’t replace periodic elections, or at least not at once, but it
could certainly guard us against their worst failings. Not least of those is
the grossly outsized influence of narrow interests at the expense of everyone
else’s.
"We have come here to let them know that change is
coming whether they like it or not" — Greta Thunberg, 15-year-old climate
activist
Because, let’s face it, the current system’s not working as
advertised. The evidence is everywhere. Voters are frustrated with their lack
of influence over political decisions made in their name. Many growl their
complaints in private, some find minority scapegoats and others take to the
streets to try to make themselves heard.
In London, Brexit campaigners wave Union Jacks at Remainers’
European flags, while their prime minister tries to herd together her mutinous
party. In France, Yellow Jacket protesters have turned to violence — cars set
alight, vandalized monuments on Paris’ most iconic boulevards — in anger at years
of imperious presidencies.
The risks from political dysfunction are severe and weigh on
multiple fronts. Most dangerous of all is climate change, the poster child for
political failure at every level of government. Among the core causes of
climate inaction is representative democracy and its vulnerability to being
hijacked. The system’s baked-in electoral pressures turn the rhetorical lions
of campaign trails to squeaky mice when it comes to real-world actions. The
short-term calculus of votes and seats trumps any hope of long-term thinking.
So our elected governments, despite their fine talk, have
wasted decades postponing effective responses. The short-term winners have been
rich-country voters, encouraged by fossil-fuel firms and other companies that
enable our growth addictions and mass-consumption lifestyles. The losers are
poor countries, all people’s children and everything else living on the planet.
To break free of dysfunctional decision-making, we’ll also
need to break free of electoral dynamics. Just as the clothes-less emperor had
to face his own nakedness, we’ll have to reflect on our deepest-held beliefs.
Elections, after all, were always a corruption of democracy.
Ancient Athenians saw them as bound to create oligarchic government — meaning
power in the hands of a self-serving few.
Their original democracy — literally rule by the people —
involved assemblies of citizens and random selection of all bar a handful of
public servants. Yes, Athens excluded slaves and women from decision-making but
so also did the original United States of America. Athenian citizens made their
voices heard and took part in decision-making by shows of hands. Urgent
decisions were made by small groups of randomly selected citizens in juries,
serving short, limited terms.
It was only with the French and American revolutions that
elected representatives were introduced. The result was the hijacking of
democracy — as both a word and process.
If our democracy has no clothes, it’s apt that one those
pointing that out is a 15-year-old Swedish high school student. Greta Thunberg
emerged as an unlikely activist rockstar last August after refusing to go to
class in protest against her government’s climate policies.
More than 20,000 students have joined Thunberg’s
#fridaysforfuture movement. School strikes have spread to at least 270 towns
and cities, including ones in Australia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the U.S.
and Japan.
Like the boy who burst the naked emperor’s delusion,
Thunberg exposed the trumped-up adults at the global climate summit in Poland
this month.
“We have not come here to beg the world leaders to care for
our future,” Thunberg told climate negotiators in Katowice, Poland. “They have
ignored us in the past and they will ignore us again. We have come here to let
them know that change is coming whether they like it or not.”
Ireland managed to counter foreign influence on its abortion
referendum in May this year | Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Thunberg’s efforts may seem like small fry but movements
like these point beyond democracy’s frustrated potential. They certainly seem
more likely to pressure governments into action than waiting for the next
chance to cast a ballot.
At the same time as Thunberg, another politically savvy
movement has sprung up in the U.K., one taking a page from democracy’s Athenian
past. The Extinction Rebellion includes thousands of supporters pushing for
credible climate action by the government. Among their proposals: the creation
of a citizens’ jury to determine how the U.K. could cut emissions to zero by
2025.
The idea that a group of randomly selected citizens could
open more direct channels between politicians, activists and voters is
certainly worth taking seriously. Others have gone down that route, with
promising results.
Ireland, drawing lessons from the economic mauling it took
during the global financial crisis, is the stand-out example. It held a series
of citizens’ juries of different formats and focus, restoring some credibility
to its political processes along the way. More concretely, the Irish channeled
citizens’ thinking to create fairer policies on hot button issues such as
same-sex marriage and ending the country’s de facto abortion ban.
Ireland’s public juries, comprised of randomly selected
citizens, helped fuel informed, constructive debates ahead of public votes. The
country even dampened the risks of foreign money being spent on social media
ads to swing the abortion ballot.
And while the Irish are undoubtedly the pioneers of the jury
approach, they’re certainly not alone.
“Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have
to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago" — Greta
Thunberg
The use of public juries is burgeoning around the world — in
Australia, Canada, across European nations and even the U.S. A school project
in Cochabamba, Bolivia has experimented with replacing class elections to
choose student governors with lotteries. Even Poland’s port city of Gdańsk is
in on the action.
None of these processes is perfect, or immune to political
capture. Yet their joined-up debates most certainly stand tall in comparison to
the money-corrupted campaigning for elections.
Our common futures quite literally depend on how we take
political decisions. After all, it’s representative democracy that gives us the
U.S. Senate. James Madison imagined this arm of government explicitly to
“protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.” The effects of its
design have blocked U.S. citizens from playing their considerable part in
fighting climate change.
Unless we transform our approach — and find new ways to hold
politicians to account and make our voices heard — the same fate awaits any
climate change deal worth its ink emerging from Katowice, however perilous that
might be for the planet.
If we do change course effectively, it will be because we’ll
have listened to people like Thunberg. Or, better yet, because we’ll have
become people like Thunberg.
“Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have
to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago,” the young activist
told the grandees gathered in Katowice.
Her sentiment is hard to dispute. If we’re to work together
as conscious, thinking humans we need to clothe our systems of government. It’s
time to wrap up democracy by election.
Patrick Chalmers is a journalist, film maker and campaigner
for better systems of government.
This article is part of “Democracy Fix,” a series looking at efforts to counter rising
illiberalism, digital disruption and dropping confidence in institutions of the
Western world.
It’s the end of Europe as we know it (and it feels fine)
While it’s easy to dismiss Europe as a place where nothing
really works, somehow most everything does.
By MATTHEW
KARNITSCHNIG 12/17/18, 4:02 AM CET
Updated 12/17/18, 7:06 AM CET
BERLIN — It was a helluva week in the hellhole. Paris was
“burning;” Brexit a “psychodrama;” autocracy was “making a comeback.”
You know Europe’s image is taking a hit when American
liberals start feeling superior.
Even the staid Wall Street Journal was concerned: “Divisions
over economics, culture and geography are challenging governments’ longevity or
their ability to pursue their agenda.”
Translation: Europe’s screwed.
But is it?
At a time when terrorists are on the rampage, Italy’s
cooking the books and Viktor Orbán has become Central Europe’s answer to Il
Duce, it’s tempting to pile on the EU.
Europe lacks real leadership and vision; it has become, as
Canadian composer Chilly Gonzales memorably put it, “a movie with no plot.”
And yet, as another annus horribilis draws to a close, it’s
difficult to deny that Europe has once again survived more or less intact.
The paradox of Europe to foreigners and natives alike is
that while it always seems like it's on disaster’s doorstep, doomsday never
actually arrives (except, of course, in 1939, 1914, 1805, 455, etc ... but hey,
all those days of the apocalypse predate the EU).
Indeed, given Europe’s myriad woes, its citizenry is
surprisingly upbeat. Public backing for the EU is the highest it’s been in more
than a generation, while support for the euro has reached record levels.
Across the Continent (with notable exceptions), trains run
on time, health care and education are accessible to all and generally sound,
the justice system fair and cities safe.
Though it’s easy to blame the media for Europe’s bad
reputation, the real culprits are to be found among the Continent’s political
leaders.
The region’s economy, though showing signs of strain, is
still growing. Unemployment in the EU, though still a major challenge in some
countries, has fallen to its lowest level since 2000.
At a time when free trade seems increasingly under siege,
the EU concluded two landmark trade agreements, with Canada and Japan.
So while it’s easy to dismiss Europe as a place where
nothing really works (Greece, Brexit, migration, Jean-Claude Juncker), somehow
most everything does.
Even most populists have given up on trying to leave the EU.
Though it’s easy to blame the media for Europe’s bad
reputation, the real culprits are to be found among the Continent’s political
leaders.
Beginning with the euro crisis, politicians have been using
the threat of Europe’s pending demise as a rhetorical bludgeon. “If the euro
fails, then Europe will fail,” Angela Merkel first warned in 2010, as she tried
to rally support for her bailout strategy.
“Europe must change or risk death,” Pierre Moscovici,
France's EU commissioner, said in 2016.
“The project is in mortal danger,” Günther Oettinger,
Germany's commissioner, declared in September, as he tried to win approval for
his budget blueprint.
If the past decade of perpetual crisis has taught us
anything, it’s that whatever happens next, Europe’s demise is the least likely
outcome.
The danger is that the end-of-days prophecies will become
self-fulfilling. Hardly a week passes without a political challenge being cast
as a do-or-die moment for Europe.
Merkel’s recent decision to step down as leader of her party
brought Europe’s would-be Cassandras out in force. Merkel’s pending exit didn’t
just pose a significant challenge to the EU, it could have “dire consequences,”
the Guardian warned, invoking the 1930s.
The latest ooh-la-la moment? France’s Yellow Jackets
protests. Some fear the return of the guillotine and a revolution that could
sweep across Europe. Others, especially Germans, are unsettled by President
Emmanuel Macron’s response, specifically his decision to throw money at the
problem — as if the entire Continent would crumble if France (and Italy) misses
the EU’s arbitrary 3 percent deficit target.
Europe’s liberals, meanwhile, are rallying to save the
French president.
For some, he’s the new euro: “If Macron fails, Europe
fails,” Henrik Enderlein, a prominent German academic, warned over the weekend
in a column for Der Spiegel.
If the past decade of perpetual crisis has taught us anything,
it’s that whatever happens next, Europe’s demise is the least likely outcome.
With its aging population and unwieldy bureaucracy, the EU
may not become the world's next economic motor. On the global stage, Europe is
destined to remain the 50-year-old at the disco: well past its prime and
hopelessly awkward in the company of the trendsetters.
Yet it will stay on the dance floor because what its
citizens fear most is what could happen once the music stops.
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