Democratic Audit, based at the London School of Economics, is an independent research unit based at the Public Policy Group in the LSE’s Government Department. Its core objective is to advance democracy and freedom, and to undertake and promote research into their quality, durability and effectiveness in a UK context.
Here is an extract from its comments on “deliberative democracy” – an initiative of the Electoral Reform Society:
“Tomorrow marks the beginning of a series of citizens’ assemblies, organised by the Electoral Reform Society in partnership with academics from Sheffield, Southampton and London, which will be taking place in Southampton and Sheffield over the next month. In this article, Chris Terry discusses the trend of grassroots deliberation which has been gaining momentum since the late 1980s. He argues deliberative democracy tools can help to improve and legitimise political decision-making in an age of detachment from traditional political elites.
… Deliberative democracy is not a replacement for traditional democratic structures. Rather it should be thought of as an addition to them. By involving ordinary citizens in the process of political decision-making, these tools can help to improve and legitimise political decision-making in an age of detachment from traditional political elites.
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges for the UK’s political elites is devolution. Since the Scottish independence referendum the constitution of the UK seems weaker and more fractured than ever. A patchwork of devolution settlements exists, stewarded in a top-down way by political elites. This is not the way to build a lasting, sustainable UK constitutional settlement.
That is why the Electoral Reform Society, together with academics from the Universities of Sheffield, Southampton, London and Westminster, is running two Citizens’ Assemblies in Sheffield and Southampton over the next month, looking at how those areas should be run in the new devolution age.
We hope that this will only be the beginning, building towards a national citizens’ convention to look at Britain’s democratic future and how the UK works together. Whatever the future of the Union, it is vital that our institutions have the legitimacy that can only be conferred by a grassroots re-evaluation of our political processes. Our democracy is changing – and it’s time citizens had a say how.”
http://www.democraticaudit.com/?p=16848
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