The media's discussions of the democratic deficit
In the last few months of 2013, the BBC, Guardian, and other UK media have given much coverage and discussion to exactly those problems that the RDP was created to deal with. Surveys have been showing that the overwhelming proportion of the UK electorate are now recognised as very disenchanted with the House of Commons and politicians in general. And they are not apathetic but rather angry and frustrated at a seeming lack of any options to change things (but only because they haven't yet heard of the RDP!).
BBC Radio 4's PM program in particular had a whole series of interactions between listeners sending in their suggestions and panels of experts giving their judgements thereon.
(Link to more here shortly)
(This page is under construction.....)
( There's not much point in your just reading an account of our proposed system here, because you first need to study the analysis and reasoning that directed its development. Otherwise you won't know why it is this rather than that and so on.
The most basic principle we have followed is to change no more than needs to be changed, though also changing as much as needs to be changed. For instance some people would like to abolish the monarchy. But there is no evidence that the monarchy is the cause of the corrupt and incompetent government we have. There are numerous non-monarchies which are just as bad or worse. But we do need to change from the mass-electoral system, because that is a key cause of the problems, and none of the many mass-electoral systems around the world give remotely satisfactory results. This international experience shows that merely changing to proportional representation or state funding or a presidential system would be insufficient.)
Our proposed new political system (realdem) is the outcome of many years of research and discussion and thinking, but we at RDP HQ do not reckon to delude ourselves that we have a highway to perfection. Not least, any political system is itself inherently a politically-contentious matter, with no absolutely "correct" answer to the questions involved in its design. For that reason an important function of the RDP is going to be not only the practical introduction of realdem, but also the organisation of consultation and debate about its various options. And as part of that, we invite you to let us know your thoughts about the present proposals.
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See all these broken promises from the Labour, Conservative, and LibDem timewasting dinosaur parties
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| "There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come." |