When it comes to technology start-ups there’s a nine out of ten chance that the idea will fail. Far from being considered a problem it’s recognised that doing something different is a risky strategy. But it is also one that can lead to enormous rewards if you get it right.
True failure only happens when the [...]
Filed under: Democratic renewal, Design, Web 2.0 and democracy | No Comments »
The European Union’s Committee of the Regions has published a new Eurobarometer survey looking at the impact of local and regional government in the EU.
The survey shows that local government is the most trusted tier of government in the EU (50% trust), with the EU itself second (47%) and national governments some way behind in [...]
Filed under: Democratic renewal, Public administration | No Comments »
The reason that there is such a wide-ranging debate about what democracy is, and how it is likely to change in the coming years, is in no small part, down to the fact that technology is making new things possible. The technical infrastructure available to us is changing, and creative minds are being applied to [...]
Filed under: Democratic renewal, Obstacles for democrats to overcome, Web 2.0 and democracy | No Comments »
Given all the talk of localism in recent months, it is pretty disappointing to see Caroline Spelman, the Conservative shadow Local Government minister, making the following statement (via the BBC) on Council Tax rises:
At a time when millions of workers are facing pay freezes or unemployment this year, it adds insult to injury to drive [...]
Filed under: Conservatives, Council services, Democratic renewal, Political parties | No Comments »
Local decision-making should be less constrained by central government, and also more accountable to local people. We will encourage democratic innovations in local government, including pilots of the idea of elected mayors with executive powers in cities.
David Cameron’s green paper Shift Control, published yesterday? No, the 1997 Labour manifesto, and if you want a good [...]
Filed under: Council services, Councillors, Democratic renewal, Mayors, Political parties | No Comments »
It is very hard to take the UK Conservative Party’s claim to be a localist party seriously today. Many of these steps will seriously weaken the powers and status of local elected representatives without providing any empowerment of ordinary citizens by way of compensation.
All of the following issues are features can be portrayed as fitting [...]
Filed under: Centralisation, Democratic renewal | No Comments »
Local government has been thinking a lot about community engagement and reputation management, and one of the unexpected side-effects has been an increased focus on how council communications support the democracy and participation message.
Press releases are more focused on residents’ experiences, and repeat key messages about the council’s activities. Process description is kept to a [...]
Filed under: Consultations, Democratic renewal, Public administration | No Comments »
They say that eavesdroppers never hear good things about themselves. This may be true, but they probably get a more honest appraisal than the more direct forms of feedback can afford.
For me, this raises the question: Should we be asking people what they think about anything?
Or should we be encouraging conversations and finding (non-intrusive!) [...]
Filed under: Consultations, Deliberative democracy, Democratic renewal, Public administration, Web 2.0 and democracy | No Comments »
It’s not a question for today. The only reason I raise it now is because there are plenty of reasons to question the quality of liberal democracy found in the United States.
The pressure groups are immensely powerful. The constitution imposes boundaries upon the voters that many find unacceptable.
As the Democratic Society blog notes, free (as [...]
Filed under: Democratic renewal | No Comments »
If you were to draw a Venn Diagram showing attitudes to the use of ICT tools for interactivity, putting Interactive Evangelists in one circle and local authority ICT managers in the other, I strongly suspect that you would end up with something that looks like a number.
This number:
8
When I get time, I’d like to pull [...]
Filed under: Democratic renewal, Obstacles for democrats to overcome, Public administration, Web 2.0 and democracy, What makes a good representative? | 1 Comment »
Here’s Suze, musing on the question of how far blogging is having a positive impact on journalism. Suze concludes that it’s too early to tell, but she says a lot of interesting things on the way.
For me, here’s the big question: Does the emergence of a decentralised space with fewer barriers to entry (ahem: Web [...]
Filed under: Being a politician, Conversational localities, Deliberative democracy, Democratic renewal, Web 2.0 and democracy, What makes a good representative? | 5 Comments »
Before politics stopped being fairly boring in the late summer last year, the book of the year looked like it was going to be Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s Nudge. It’s still worth a look when you need a break from Robert Peston - and one of their areas of interest has been ballot design [...]
Filed under: Centralisation, Democratic renewal, Elections, Obstacles for democrats to overcome | 1 Comment »
Here’s a good post from an Australian blogger on the question: Is adversarial politics damaging to our democracy? (It’s actually an update on a previous post with that title). Here the adversarialism is opposed by a more attractive ‘deliberative’ model of the kind advocated here. The flipside of this argument is put very well by [...]
Filed under: Being a politician, Consultations, Deliberative democracy, Democratic renewal, Neutrality, Pressure groups, Public administration | Tagged: Adversarial politics, Discretion in politics, Independence, Standards Board, Transparency | 2 Comments »
This is the first in a new feature for this blog. I’ve approached some of my favourite democracy / participation bloggers and given them a choice of a few questions. The first to step up to the challenge is Steph Gray.
Steph blogs at Helpful Technology, and offers a fantastically informative round-up of the things that [...]
Filed under: Being a politician, Democratic renewal, Public administration, Web 2.0 and democracy | Tagged: Innovation, Memes | 2 Comments »
My friend, former Hansard Society e-democracy watcher Ross Ferguson says:
A local government will fall head-over-heels in love with the promise of eDemocracy and launch into an ambitious project to put digital front-and-centre of its democratic processes and service provision. It will be facilitated with next-generation municipal ICT and it will capture our imaginations but it [...]
Filed under: Being a politician, Consultations, Councillors, Deliberative democracy, Democratic renewal, Obstacles for democrats to overcome, Public administration, Web 2.0 and democracy | No Comments »
I’m never sure whether think-pieces work when the audience is on holiday. Personally, the old adage about getting a busy person to help when you need something doing can be adapted here: If you want to get people’s attention with a new idea, don’t pick a time when they are relaxing to pitch it. If [...]
Filed under: Centralisation, Democratic renewal, Public administration | Tagged: Civil service reform, Localism, Progressive politics | 1 Comment »
If ever a review were overdue, it’s the one that Hazel Blears has just announced (though it was heavily trailed in the ‘Communities in Control’ White Paper) into the rules that determine what publicity councils can and can’t do.
I’ve visited approximately 100 local authorities in the UK, trying to persuade councils to help councillors take [...]
Filed under: Being a politician, Democratic renewal, Obstacles for democrats to overcome, Web 2.0 and democracy, What makes a good representative? | Tagged: Publicity rules | No Comments »
Steph Gray asks a very good question:
“…why aren’t advocates of public participation and engagement more successful in engaging the policymakers who design consultations?“
Filed under: Consultations, Deliberative democracy, Democratic renewal, Obstacles for democrats to overcome | Tagged: Participation | No Comments »
This time last year, Sir Christopher Foster - a long-standing government adviser on economic policy was much in evidence. There was this interview in the Telegraph, and I heard him on BBC Radio 4. The link to the programme is no longer available, but I made notes at the time. The Telegraph piece makes some [...]
Filed under: Democratic renewal, Neutrality, Obstacles for democrats to overcome | Tagged: Civil service reform, Neutrality | No Comments »
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