Beta legislation: Changing the concept of ‘leadership’?da

The January 2010 issue of Wired Magazine has a bunch of policy-related proposals under the slightly familiar heading ‘Let’s Reboot Britain’.

It’s always a slightly trying time, reading Wired when it strays into politics and public policy. For an example of what I’m talking about, this article (Synopsis: I know! Now somebody’s invented teh internet, we can have referendums about everything all the time!) captures the mood and raises the question of how some of it ever slips by an editor in the first place.

But there’s also one that is well worth a look: The idea of publishing all laws in beta format. For those of you who aren’t techie-inclined, this means that laws could be released in the way that software is. Most software – in it’s early versions – isn’t actually that good. It’s often released cheaply or free of charge and feedback loops are established and monitored carefully. The best software often starts off clunky and full of holes. Perhaps good laws could follow a similar trajectory?

There is another post about the need to encourage failure – again taking the paradigm of technical innovation and applying it to civil society.

I mention these because they represent potentially innovative approaches. But they would also involve a huge reassessment of politicians. It would require a more consultative personality and a recasting of the notion of ‘leadership’. It would need the lust for certainty to be understood as a sin again.

And continuing my current uncharacteristic love-in with The Conservatives at the moment, the idea of publishing elements from a manifesto in draft and then inviting the public to ask questions, seek clarifications and propose improvements runs contrary to the traditional political Zeitgeist in which u-turns and muddles are cardinal sins. Taking it even further, Jeremy Hunt is promising to put all Green Papers online as a commentable document during a Public Reading Stage. A few weeks ago, the cheeky sods did the same thing with a leaked government IT strategy document – again, combining mischief with a deft understanding of what is possible.

The need to respond rapidly and firmly to the shrill demands of the rolling 24 hour media was a cornerstone of New Labour. It can be explained – at least in part – by the fact that Labour has traditionally had a more adversarial relationship with the media than the Conservatives, but it didn’t make for particularly good policy-making as this TV documentary illustrated.

If the Tories can break this cycle, it won’t be a bad thing by any means.

(Update: I’ve fixed the second link in this article now – apologies).