To: Government commission on "digital democracy"
Democratic e-Consultations
Dear commissioners,
please recomend to the government a system for constituency focussed e-consultations in which:
• E-consultation websites would allow MPs to raise an issue for consultation, for example posing multiple choice questions;
• Constituents can propose an issue for consultation on the website - it must be included if it gains sufficient public support;
• The definition of "sufficient support" and other regulations are determined by e-consultation;
• There are similar e-consultation websites run by and for young people under the voting age.
Why is this important?
The government commission on Digital Democracy is investigating "the opportunities digital technology can bring for parliamentary democracy in the UK" and will make recommendations in January 2015 (Google "Commission on Digital Democracy" - on their site you can see all the submissions so far to the commission).
This submission proposes a form of e-consultations which provides an approach to e-democracy that is genuinely democratic, with people rather than politicians controlling the process.
It also may help to get more young people involved in democracy and provide a means of youth constructively expressing its views and perceptions (which were certainly very relevant in the fable of The Emperor's New Clothes!)
Whereas e-petitions, e.g. as organised by 38degrees, go a long way in e-democracy, they can be dismissed as un-representative of the population as a whole. An "official" e-consultation mechanism would be less dismissible - it becomes the MP's job to convince his constituents to support his "party line" on each issue raised by himself or by others. If there is a "Silent Majority" then the proposed e-Consultations would help them to be less silent.
The "campaign website" (linked to above) contains a draft detailed presentation of the idea, based on the principles of "liquid democracy", for eventual submission to the commission - comments welcomed.
An outline of the proposal is-
• Govt. consultation websites on which anyone can include their issue, e.g. a petition on which citizens can vote.
• Any activist group (from a local community assoc. to Greenpeace or a political party) can include their viewpoint on any issue, including links to supporting evidence.
• There is a web page listing all the issues, each linking to: A page on which all the viewpoints on that issue are listed, each linking to: a page presenting that viewpoint.
• Like Google search results – what matters is the order in which entries for issues and viewpoints are listed on these web pages - their relative position.
• All citizens have equal “units of influence” which they have delegated to activist groups which they think should be listened to. At any time they can change how their influence is delegated.
• An activist group applies the influence units delegated to it - to vote on the relative position of issues and of viewpoints on the web page listings.
• Thus each citizen directly influences which issues and which viewpoints are most strongly presented to their fellow citizens.
