Diana's Reviews > Rebooting Democracy: A Citizen's Guide to Reinventing Politics

A sensible little book from Manuel Arriaga which offers ten reasons why politicians are usually the wrong people for the job, and five ways to create – or at least move towards – genuine democracy.

Democracy means government by the people for the people. It’s what we’re supposed to have in the UK, but in practice it doesn’t work like that. No matter who you vote for, once they get into power they all tend to act in the interests of big business, and disregard the needs and rights of the ordinary people who voted for them. Politicians are the wrong people, doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. No wonder we’re in a mess.

My abridged version of Arriaga’s ten things wrong with politicians:

Politicians are corrupt (legal and illegal donations, revolving door appointments)
Politicians are motivated by reelection (leading to populism, short termism, image more important than substance)
Politicians are egotistical (motivated by a desire for power)
Politicians are smug (once in power they think they are immune to public control)
Politicians are weak (even if they’re not corrupt the system will corrupt them)
Politicians are politicians (they succumb to political norms)
Politicians are elitist (or if they’re not, they get sucked into this too)
Politicians believe their own bullshit (living in a bubble they seldom challenge their pet ideologies)
Politicians aren’t normal people (demographically they’re not representative)
Politicians are powerless (the system is all encompassing, often their hands are tied)
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Not only are politicians terrible at their job, the public – their employers – barely supervise them. We vote once every four or five years, and in between have practically no control over what they do.

But the worst thing is that even if we did have more control most people would have no idea what they want politicians to do anyway. Politics is so vast and complex that it’s practically impossible for any ordinary person to understand what’s going on.

"Together, these problems present a real challenge. On the one hand, we can entrust power to a political elite who is able to minimally ponder policy issues – but who is also almost totally unaccountable to the general population. (This is what we have been doing so far.)

On the other, we can give voters a stronger voice through, for example, a more direct form of democracy, but the risk is that they will speak in an uninformed, non-thinking way. Neither seems an especially promising approach."

The first, and the core of Arriaga’s solutions is Citizen Deliberation:

"A group of ordinary citizens is tasked with collectively deciding on a policy matter. They consult with experts, listen to advocates representing different interest groups and, with the assistance of skilled facilitators, engage in careful, reasoned group discussions in which they explore the issues at hand. Throughout the entire process, the citizen panel is autonomous and its actions self-directed: it decides on, for example, the information it needs to gather from external sources, which experts or advocates to interview and what questions to ask them."

These citizens will be chosen randomly in the same way that citizens are called up for jury service. They will be given time off work and paid a reasonable fee for their work.

Asking ordinary people to govern isn’t a new idea. It was first used in ancient Athens where politicians were chosen by lot, to avoid the inevitable corruption of professional politicians, which apparently happened in those days as much as it does now.

More recently, a citizen’s assembly was formed in British Columbia in 2004 to come up with a proposal for reforming the electoral system. One hundred and sixty people met over 11 weekends and learned from experts about different options. Eventually they decided on the Single Transferable Vote, a form of proportional representation which politicians dislike, but which puts power in the hands of voters.

In 2010 in Oregon a Citizens’ Initiative Review process was established in which 24 random citizens carefully research referendum issues and compile their findings into a pamphlet which is sent to all voters before the referendum is held. After a one year trial this system is now a permanent feature in that state.

The second solution is electoral reform, and Arriaga suggests two measures – the Single Transferable Vote, as described above, and currently in use in Ireland, Malta and Australia, and limits on campaign funding as they have in France.

The third solution looks at how to keep politicians honest, after they’ve been elected. Arriaga favours giving citizens a kind of “bright red STOP button”, if, for example, politicians try to raise tuition fees after being elected on the promise that they would never do so, or invade a foreign country against the wishes of the people. He suggests learning from Switzerland and holding referendums whenever a required number of signatures is gathered, and he adds to this that before the referendum a citizens’ panel should research the matter to provide reliable information for the electorate.

The fourth is freeing our politicians from centralised decision making. International or supranational institutions are far removed from democratic accountability. The EU in particular is detached from the population it is supposed to serve.

And the fifth solution is for governments to embrace different time frames for decision making. Our democratic system is structured in such a way that long term thinking is pushed aside for short term gain, a system that is hopeless for dealing with climate change. Arriaga proposes a “Long Now Citizens’ Assembly” which would meet every ten years and set long term visions for the country.

"Using citizen assemblies to agree on a national vision … presents us with a scenario in which the only overarching ideal is one of reasoned decision making via careful, shared consideration of the most important issue facing us. Political labels fade away, ceding ground to well reasoned and truly democratic pragmatism."