Participatory DemocracyTen questions and some inadequate answers

Club of Venice Plenary Session, Tallinn, June 2013

!e Democratic Society

Six years ago I knew all the answers

A!er a lot of work ...

... I’m fairly sure I know

the questions

Ten three-beer problems

"e Absent Audience problem

1

How do you get enough people involved to make tools useful ?

It’s not by saying “this is good for democracy”

"e Scales of Justice problem

2

How do you balance different voices ?

Maths ?

Discussion ?

"e Carthage problem

3

Carthago Delenda Est

Here we go again

It’s all the fault of the liberal elites !

I might just go and watch the football

"e Kingsley Amis problem

4

“More will mean worse”

Not everyone will become "omas Jefferson - how do we handle it ?

"e Head above the Parapet problem

5

How can Goverment create conversation ...

... and keep people interested in the question, not who’s asking it

"e Crying Baby problem

6

Who would rather participate in politics than calm a crying baby ?

Everyday lives get in the way

How do we fit politics into five minutes?

"e Great Western Railway problem

7

Lots of different incompatible approaches

Photo: Marlow & District Railway Society

When we need connectivity

"e Venetian Citizen problem

8

Who is a Venetian citizen?

Someone with an Italian passport living in Venice?

Someone who comes from Venice?

Someone who loves Venice but lives in Milwaukee?

How can we reflect lives of overlapping citizenships ?

"e George W Bush problem

9

“I’m the decider, and I decide.”

What is the limit of

control ?

Balancing “who cares”

with “too risky”

"e William Morris problem

10

Take something hand-cra!ed and mass-produce it

Without losing the design quality

I promised you some inadequate answers

Perhaps it would be be$er to say incomplete answers

New institutions

Government changing alongside

Networks ! Networks ! Networks !

Flexibility in finances and structures

Tolerance of mistakes

Collaborative effort

We have it in our power to begin the

world over again.

Tom Paine

Presentation by Anthony Zacharzewskifor the Democratic Society. June 2013

@demsoc | ajz10@demsoc.org | http://www.demsoc.org