Sustainability needs flourishing democracy

Suggestions for action

During the consultation process for the Manifesto, we asked people to suggest actions or innovations that could get democracy to work better for sustainable development, or sustainability. We’ve divided up peoples’ responses in line with the six themes of the Democracy and Sustainability Platform that make up the Manifesto Principles.

On this page, you can read through peoples’ ideas for action to strengthen democracy. After all, sustainability needs flourishing democracy.

We hope that whether you agree with the ideas or not, they get you thinking about what might be needed. We’d like them to inspire you as you plan your own actions to implement the Manifesto for Democracy and Sustainability.

You can read more here about the Manifesto consultation process, as well as who was involved, and how.

Fostering transparency, accountability and trust

Politicians should declare their interests as a means of building trust (UK)

All civil service briefings to be available on the Internet (UK)

All civil servants, politicians, and journalists to have legal obligation to tell the truth and disclose relevant information (UK)

Asking voters to determine if they could recognize one party from another and spot which party stands for what proposals as a practical innovation designed to foster more engaged voting (UK)

Right of citizens to ‘recall’ their elected representatives (UK)

Leaders to hold public meetings after they are elected maybe twice a year in their constituency. A bit like a party conference, but public (UK)

Tackling under-participation and low voter turnout

Mandatory voting (UK)

People should stop voting and seek alternative viable means of creating democracy. Build a participative democracy then rebuild a (subordinate) representative democracy (UK)

Democracy is all about people expressing themselves and some are not really comfortable with words. So maybe the role of art should be considered (UK)

The number of people who choose not to vote in key elections could be shown visually in parliament, for example by leaving seats taped up and therefore unusable as a visible reminder to those who chose not to vote (UK)

The role of political parties

Party Manifesto or candidate Manifestos must be subject to independent audit. Democracy based on parties and voting is an illusion. The whip system in UK must go – maybe through international legislation. That would take away party power. Ultimately, do we need parties? (UK)

Democracy 2.0/ internet-based tools for democracy

Implementar las herramientas para desarrollar la democracia 2.0 con determinadas politicas ó todas las políticas y decisions (Spain)

Voting electronically should be made accessible to all to increase voter turnout as well as reducing criminal abuse of the voting system (Spain)

How about more text message polling for issues? (UK)

Leadership as the key to democratic renewal

What holds the key to successful democratic renewal is civic leadership… At the political level, without council leaders or government ministers who understand the value of democratic renewal and are determined to press for communitarian actions to engage communities more widely and effectively, time and resources would be diverted to other issues (UK)

Towards interconnected democracy

Single unified Election Day globally once every five years (UK)

The Organization of American States’ InterAmerican Charter for Democracy – Lima, Peru, 11 Sep 2001 as a model (Argentina)

Address lobbying

Beyond the role of ‘vested interests’, lobbying and think tanks (being unelected and unrepresentative of constituents) should be outlawed entirely (UK)

Full transparency on the part of elected representatives on all lobbying, interests and concerns (UK)

Combating the negative aspects of adversarial decision-making

A number of UK consultees writing from a system of democracy where the London-based Westminster parliament relies on a ‘first past the post’ voting system and a highly adversarial culture of decision-making proposed that proportional representation be introduced as a route to a more representative and less adversarial system of democracy (UK)

All votes counted, all votes count i.e. no first-past-post, 5% hurdle, etc (UK)

Non-adversarial debating chambers like that of the Scottish Parliament, and the active promotion of coalitions and negotiated decision making (UK)

Development of practices of non-verbal communication in assemblies (Canada)

Las leyes electorales deben ser claras: una persona, un voto, + una representación para cada territorio. Fuera la Ley D’Hondt! (Spain)

Other resources

Report of the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security Deepening Democracy

National Commission for Public Debate (France)

 

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