There follows an extract from a communication sent to several Internet discussion groups on political participation, public affairs, electronic democracy, information and society. Some interesting replies may be found in Democracy in Action II. Some examples of replies are listed in abbreviated form below***
What about a comparison of several democratic countries, showing real people acting as citizens and representatives, aiming to demonstrate advantages and disadvantages of different democratic forms?
(...) I suggest that there is a need for digestible information about how democracy works, its benefits and deficits. I am not concerned *here* to show that democracy is or is not preferable to tyranny, dictatorship or to violent social disorder but to aid people, citizens, to seek and recognise (assuming they exist) ways to improve existing and relatively stable democratic systems. To demonstrate my viewpoint I mention that I am an academic and also have experience in promoting public debate. The fundament for the sort of work which I am proposing should be (dependent as ever upon resources) theoretical, empirical, deep and thorough. But I want to emphasise one special aspect. An early aim (of the proposal) is to produce information and analyses which can be understood and digested by a broad public such as (a) A comparison of democratic decision-making systems, with special reference to the extent of participation available to and used by citizens, in several european countries and maybe one or two others. What are the different forms of public representation, participation and decision-making? What are the degrees of interaction between the represented citizens and the representing individuals, organisations? To what extent are "direct democracy" and "deliberative democracy" practised? What innovations have been made or suggested to increase participation of citizens, specialist or lobby groups? (b) A catalogue of proposals and initiatives aimed to improve participation of citizens in government. Basic concepts, examples from past and present, role of new electronic media.
In summary, how do democracies work in practice, and how may they be improved?
SEASONAL GREETINGS TO ALL
Michael.
# From: The Jefferson Center <jcenter@winternet.com>
(...) Representative panels of citizens who meet to examine public policy issues and present their findings to decision-makers and to the community at large. We have run local, state and national projects on issues ranging from hog farming, congestion pricing and school-based health clinics to national juries on health care reform and federal government budgeting priorities.
# El Lobo de las Tinieblas <ajf5@coventry.ac.uk>
(...) Centralised decision-making (vis-a-vis decisions left to central government excluding the public which it affects) is the cause of many of our problems and the cause of much public upset.
# m.e.morrell@asu.edu
(...) my dissertation is focusing on whether or not participation in
political decision making actually has some of the effects claimed by
J.S. Mill, Carol Pateman, Benjamin Barber and others. I am testing this
experimentally, (...)
# "HAGEN.MARTIN" <hagen@sozwi.sozialwiss.uni-hamburg.de>
Organization: Univ. Hamburg, Dep. of Social Sc.
(...) Ich arbeite nun an einem aehnlichem Projekt, naemlich einen Artikel
ueber "Electronic Democracy und der Information Superhighway".
# To: "HAGEN.MARTIN" <hagen@sozwi.sozialwiss.uni-hamburg.de>
From: mjm@berlin.snafu.de (michael macpherson)
(...) i am suggesting that there should be a citizens' and public audit (kritische auswertung) as a base for informed decisions about how *exisiting* democratic systems should be improved. I get the impressions that there is a widespread vague hope that the "information superhighway" will improve meaningful participation and diffuse power. (...)
# From: roesderz@xs4all.nl (Marcel Bullinga)
(...) Please give your comment on "Decision-Maker/Teledemocracy", a procedural and editorial model for teledemocracy via Internet that I have designed for the Dutch Institute of Public and Politics. (..)
# From: Jonathan Seib <SEIB_JO@leg.wa.gov>
(...) I think it is extremely important to also address ways to improve citizen participation in the implementation process. The notion that "policy is what happens" is certainly true. Here in the U.S., much of the frustration with "the bureaucracy" (...)
# Jean Lloyd-Jones
X-Sender: rljones@black.weeg.uiowa.edu
(...) My focus is on legislative decision-making and how representative democracy can be improved. I would be interested in your views on how to engage the citizens in meaningful dialogue. (...)
# From: "Thomas W. Krafft" <tkrafft@oboe.aix.calpoly.edu>
Organization: California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo
(...) It would appear to me, that at present, the Internet has several resources for the general discussion of politically-related subjects - but NO area for the refined postulation of viable reforms. Perhaps what is needed is a "Philadelphia Convention" of sorts ... a site which is an interactive collective of the world's true "thinkers" (intellectuals with a capacity to work together to produce answers to some of our questions - in an unbiased, informed and coherent manner). (...)
# "F. Zahraie" <faramak@u.washington.edu>
(...) I believe real representational democracy would work by a process of random selection, whereby there is no bias as to whom is elected. (...)
# From: Stuart Carruthers <stuart@tagish.demon.co.uk>
Organization: tagish Ltd
(...) We maintain the UK national inventory of telematic (info soc)
projects in the UK for our government, and have also established
inventories of all the electronic links to the public sector in the
UK (and other parts of the world - the essential list). (...)
# From: Tan Teck Chin <P-TAN@UTMKL.UTM.MY>
Organization: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
Subject: Re: debate democracy
To: michael macpherson <mjm@berlin.snafu.de>
Hi, Mike! How are you in Europe? Is there any snow man right now?
Can you post me some snow? I haven't see snow in my life. (just
kidding) I have received a lot of email with this subject: debate
democracy.
contact: Dr. Michael Macpherson via e-mail, mjm@berlin.snafu.de
URL of this document is http://www.snafu.de/~mjm/s/d2.html
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