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An expert on how democracy can be improved is giving a Catalyst Trust talk in Queenstown next Wednesday.
Iain Walker, executive director of newDemocracy Foundation, says "we innovate everything else we d o insociety, and democracy is sort of stuck in the age of the telegraph".
"Every democracy around the world, people are not feeling heard.
"And, at the same time, politicians feel massively constrained because they’re scared of public opinion blow-back.
"Well, OK, they’re two sides of the same coin when you think about it."
Walker’s solution is involving people directly in decision-making through citizen panels.
"The closest analogy is the criminal jury system.
"If you think about what makes a jury work, it’s the random selection of people exposed to diverse and contested evidence, and they’re asked to come to a common-ground decision.
"And, as a society, we trust it, and we’re not trusting even tiny government decisions.
"People say, ‘will politicians be resistant?’
"Judges find juries complementary, why wouldn’t an MP find a similar system complementary?"
Walker says an example of citizen panels working is in Melbourne where the city had been massively in debt with seemingly no prospect of getting out of it.
As a result, the Victorian state government changed its local government act, "and it requires councils once every four years to do a budgetary exercise using this methodology".
Walker’s trip to New Zealand, including visiting politicians in Wellington, is being supported by the IDEA Institute (Institute for Democratic and Economic Analysis) and Arrowtown couple Lizanne and Julian Knights — they’re friends of Australian Luca Belgiorno-Nettis, who funds the newDemocracy Foundation.
Walker’s speaking at The Rees Hotel from 7pm next Wednesday — registrations via catalystnz.org.
Donations will be given to the IDEA Institute.
