Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Old-style political parties stand in the way of real democracy

The Harper Government's recent action in muscling through Parliament a massive omnibus budget bill has called into question the health of Canada's democracy.

So, a newly published book about Ottawa's woeful dysfunction is timely. In Power Shift, From Party Elites to Informed Citizens, Vaughan Lyon, a political scientist from Vancouver, argues it's time to kill off political parties.

Canada, he says, needs a more grassroots political enterprise in which "party democracy [would be transformed into] policy democracy."

Lyon envisions thousands of ordinary Canadians serving in non-partisan constituency parliaments, one for each of the 308 federal ridings.

They'd be paid for a month of toil and deliberation each year, and would work closely with newly non-partisan MPs rep-resenting them in Parliament.

A prime minister and cabinet could be chosen by the unaffiliated MPs in consultation with the constituency parliaments, either from within the MPs' ranks or beyond, as in the U.S.

By way of such a "quiet Canadian democratic revolution," Lyon says Canadian taxpayers at last would get a genuine say on government decisions in a process devoid of the partisan self interest that now taints and corrupts policy making.

Imagine how different things might have been had such a system been in place provincially when the Campbell government moved to introduce an HST in B.C.

Lyon, a professor emeritus at Trent University in Peter-borough, Ont., writes: "The existing political system can be thought of as an old and battered ship whose days of good service have long passed."

Under Lyon's model, "political leaders and bureaucrats now preoccupied with defending themselves and their government from opposition attacks and general criticism, would have to earn the support of a parliament representing these local leaders."

Lyon's ideas are radical. But an argument can be made Canada's governance infrastructure is in need of an overhaul.

Voter turnout has been drop-ping like an anchor. Back in the 1980s, some 75 per cent of those eligible cast ballots. In last year's federal election 61 per cent voted. Richmond had the lowest turnout of any municipality, at 50.7 per cent.

People are alienated from government. Polls regularly show they're cynical about and mistrustful of politicians.

And public protests like the 2010 G20 fiasco in Toronto, the 2011 Occupy movement's tent cities and most recently Quebec's student demos all point to a profound frustration with the status quo.

At present, governing parties, to preserve their competitive advantage over their opposition, keep a machiavellian hold on information.

They muzzle a bureaucracy that, in the public interest, should be free to blow the whistle and provide data to the tax-payers who pay the freight.

The problem with Lyon's proposal is, it's so untested. Only a few tiny islands in the South Pacific govern at the national level without parties. Uganda tried it in 1986 but Ugandans voted to reintroduce parties in 2005.

It's a good bet Canadians would want to see a Western democracy test the model in the interest of some tire-kicking before making a purchase.

Because folks generally are turned off politics, it would be difficult to organize the sort of activist groundswell necessary to launch such a huge project.

Indeed Canadians have shown themselves to be less than daring about political reform.

Think of referendums held in recent years in B.C., P.E.I. and Ontario on adopting a proportional representation voting system. All were defeated.

That said, Stephen Harper is doing a good job convincing voters this country's government is in desperate need of a dose of democracy.

Original Article
Source: vancouver sun
Author: Barbara Yaffe

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