Those of you who are regular readers of this blog will know that one of my major concerns is the hijacking and “bastardisation” of democracy; my view is that its original intentions have been thrown away so that what we have now is a mere shell which shields those in authority from us “down the chain”. However, it is not enough just to complain about a regime – that’s easy. It’s another matter to consider alternatives, and that’s what I have been doing. My aim was to find something very similar but a system that would allow everyone the best chance of democratically allowing their voice and views to be heard, recognised and where appropriate, acted upon.
There is such a possibility and it is already being practiced in Canada, Germany, Australia and parts of the USA. Excellent, as there is a model currently in use that has been shown to work and it is called “Deliberative Democracy”.
This concept considers public discussion as a central and unavoidable part of legitimate law-making and adopts aspects of consensus decision-making and majority rule. It proposes that for a democratic decision to be legitimate it must be preceded by authentic deliberation and totally free from any distortions caused by unequal power (such as power gained by the decision-maker through economic wealth or the backing of interest groups). Deliberation aims at a rationally motivated consensus and to find reasons acceptable to all who are committed to such a system of decision-making. When consensus or something near enough is not possible, majoritarian decision-making is used. Thus the system is generating ideals of impartiality, rationality and knowledge, ensuring that decisions reached are morally correct whilst recognising any conflicts of interest.
Whilst recognising that one can never have a system within which every view is accepted and acted upon, I believe that this system is a huge step towards bringing true democracy back to all. I also understand there will be many who view this as a retrograde view in that it “smells” similar to other “-isms” already tried and found to be of limited value. But if we never try, how will we know? And please, remember Bertrand Russell.Until next time (and more moral deliberation),
Peripatetic Scribe
AN interesting commentary/viewpoint. However, if I look around me in the UK I can see this state of affairs will probably either not happen or take several decades to create. I think this is due to 2 reasons: 1) central government has become too powerful and inward-looking therefore forgetting the small people, and 2) the vast majority of individuals have no real desire to move down this route - they are quite happy to live their own small ignorant (and often unhappy) lives. Something to think about.... thanks.
ReplyDeleteExtremely interesting! Nevertheless (and unfortunately), the situation in Croatia appears to be similar to the situation in the UK described by Anonymous above.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, there will eventually be more people supporting the idea of deliberative democracy. I will most certainly inform all my friends and acquaintances by forwarding them this blog post.
Lucana
Hi, Anonymous in UK and thank you for your comment. I would say that such a change is not easy as there are so many entrenched attitudes surrounding us who prefer to let the status quo retain its status. However, it should NOT stop any of us from trying to develop a better (fairer) solution....
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