Democracy in the information Age

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Democracy in the information Age

• York University
• Monday, January 13
• Dr. Carolyn Bennett M.P.

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The need forDemocratic Reform

• Increasing cynicism and apathy
• Decreasing voter turnout especially young voters
• Mistrust of partisan political process
• 8 Canadians belong to an advocacy group
• 6 Canadians belong to a political party
• Democratic deficit Governing from the Centre

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Process for Democratic Reform

• Electoral Reform
• Parliamentary Reform
• Party Reform
• Democracy between elections

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E- Democracy

• This is NOT about e-government
• This is NOT about direct democracy

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Democracy

• One of the cornerstones of democracy has been to
  provide public spaces in which citizens can
  discuss ideas
• the web provides a new and important space

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Changing Government Volume 1

• The Political- Administrative Interface pg13
• In a democracy, the role of the elected
  representatives is to ensure that the values and
  interests of the whole society are fairly
  represented in public debate

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Crossing Boundaries 03/01Jerry Mechling

• Inputs
• how do we decide what we want government to do
• Who has access ?
• Who has authority ?
• Who is we ??
• technology opens things up - creating a whole
  bunch of choices from which to choose

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Good governmentUrsula Franklin

• Fair
• transparent
• takes people seriously

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The Decline of Deference

• Professor Neil Nevitte

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EKOS Frank Graves

• assured listening
• Otherwise increases the cynicism were trying to
  fight
• Idea of tracking successes

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Personal Concerns

• 11 of Canadianscontact their elected
  representative, letters to editor etc.
• Difference between values and opinions
• Quebec City, Genoa - didnt come and talk to me
• Attitude of some members of the public service
• Parliament is a minor process obstacle
• We need good people to run
• public life highest calling

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Dialogue St. Pauls - 2000

• Citizen Engagement and the Elected Representative
• Robert Putnam
• Social capital
• Declining memberships, voter turnout
• bowling alone
• Internet - complementary

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Citizen Engagement the Elected Representative

• The social contract in our democracy is founded
  on the consent of the governed.
• Background document, William Young,
• Library of Parliament

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Citizen Engagement the Elected Representative

• This implies not just that voters select their
  governments, but also that there is more or less
  continuous contact between citizens and their
  elected representatives in order to exchange
  knowledge and opinions.

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Citizen Engagement the Elected Representative

• It also implies the expression of preferences on
  the part of the citizen, as well as a certain
  level of attentiveness and consciousness of what
  government is doing, or wants to do.

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Dialogue St. Pauls

• Rise in reliance on polling
• rising interest in direct democracy
• increased use of non-elected bodies for
  decision-making
• scepticism of formal public consultation
• need for parliamentary reform
• confusion between political partisan

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Whos asking ???

• individual elected members
• standing committees
• The bureaucracy
• ? Political parties
• NGOs ?? Democratic, whats their policy process
  ?
• Business

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Whos being asked ?

• Breadth, Depth ??
• Usual suspects parliamentary committees
• Comfortable reference groups public service
• Evaluation

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??? Different questions

• What ?? - political question
• How ?? - management question
• Perhaps also developing menu of policy options is
  also the role of the public service .series of
  whats

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Citizen Engagement

• Different meanings
• ? Government seeking knowledge and experience on
  an area they are interested in
• ? Citizens trying to influence public policy and
  decision-makers on THEIR issues

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Stephen ColemanProfessor E-democracy Oxford
University

• Realizing Democracy Online A Civic Commons in
  Cyberspace
• Jay G. Blumler Stephen Coleman
• IPPR/Citizens Online Research Publication No.2
• e- guide for parliamentarians
• how to be an online representative
• Hansard Society