Bruce Bisset: Let's revive true participatory democracy

With general election voting also trending downward, it's hard to argue against the premise that liberal democracy is failing, says Bruce Bisset.

COMMENT

As the dust settles on the local body elections it's clear that despite the best efforts of Local Government NZ's "pro-vote" campaign citizens continue to shy away from exercising their mandate, with the national turnout down to just 41.4 per cent.

With a few exceptions, generally because of significant "big issues" - such as in Napier where exactly half the electors voted (up 6.1 per cent) - most cities and districts had a lesser turnout.

The overall vote fell in Hastings by 3.1 per cent, CHB by 8.1 per cent, and in Wairoa by a whopping 13.5 per cent.

Metropolitan areas fared worse: just 34.8 per cent voted in Auckland and 37.8 per cent in main cities overall. Meanwhile apathy seems to have taken hold right across the broader Waikato region, with three district councils there registering under 37 per cent voting, the worst in the country.

With general election voting also trending downward, it's hard to argue against the premise that liberal democracy is failing.

The perverse notion that "council doesn't listen to us, so why vote?" seems to be the main reason expressed.

Ironically of course not voting gifts said "non-listeners" another term. No, I don't get it either.

However, it begs the question: Is there a better system we could try? For instance, what if there was a way to ensure that citizens did get listened to, because they were directly included in council processes?

Well, as it happens, there is such a system, and it's been trialled effectively in a range of countries over the past 20 years. It's since been adopted as the "third demand" of the protest group Extinction Rebellion: citizens' assemblies.

In essence, a citizens' assembly (CA) is a collection of people randomly selected – much as for a jury - to discuss a specific issue and make recommendations on it to government; how binding the results may be depends on the terms of reference, but at the least the assembly acts to inform government of its view, uncluttered by party or sector politics.

And before you scoff, this is actually the original democratic model, as practised by the ancient Athenians – though the modern day version is gender and demographically representative, whereas back then women and slaves were left out.

The key is that the process – which includes learning, consultation, expert advice and facilitation, and technical input from an overview panel – is a deliberative process, not an antithetical one. Issues are worked through via informed discussion rather than ideological debate, and decisions made on consensus principles.

And it works. To give a "local" example: recently the city of Gdansk in Poland flooded and the mayor agreed to a CA to discuss the issue. A year later when floods again threatened, the city was able to respond swiftly due to resolutions passed by the assembly; and Gdansk now has such assemblies for a range of other issues.

Or nationally: Ireland's vexed abortion laws were subject to the CA process, which broke decades of political deadlock to usher in legal abortions and same-sex marriage.

Another Irish assembly's recommendations for transitional redress of climate change were adopted by government, including a better carbon tax regime, incentives for electric vehicles and an end to subsidies for peat extraction.

In response to Extinction Rebellion's demand, the UK has now followed suit, with a CA about to start work on climate change, while France has established a CA which will produce legislative proposals and regulations for the French Parliament.

Given the concept resonates with the Māori practice of hui, there's no reason it should feel strange if put to use here.

And who knows? It might just revive true participatory democracy.

Bruce Bisset is a freelance writer and poet. Views expressed are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's.