kybernetikos

1. Political parties have been absolutely central to British politics for many decades. But in recent years the number of people joining parties or saying they identify with one or other of the main parties has declined sharply. So how can political party membership and allegiance be made more attractive? And are there more effective ways of involving people in politics than through parties?

The larger the parties the more disenfranchised I feel. I have a wide variety of views on many issues, some of which are not held by any of the major parties, and the views that are are spread around, certainly not residing exclusively in one party. For me to have to choose two or maybe three views at national level is a travesty. Parties are perhaps good for organisational issues and perhaps for encouraging consensus, but they are bad for democracy. We need parties to be less influential in the selection of our candidates and to have less power to force candidates to conform to their overall view.

2. Some people argue that the government at Westminster is too powerful. They have called for more responsibility to be given to local councils and devolved institutions. Other people claim that the influence of unelected bodies such as major companies, international organisations and appointed authorities is too great and needs to be balanced by greater powers for our elected representatives. But would these changes really encourage more people to get involved in politics? Would they help people feel more confident about the possibility of influencing political decisions?

I am very concerned about the power wielded by big business, but this is probably an issue appropriate for debate. Moving more power locally would cause more people to become involved I think. Reducing the power and influence of unelected bodies is a great idea and would help people to feel like the government was working for them, but would probably not have as large an effect. Greater powers for our elected representatives is probably not the way to do this, since many of them have conflicts of interest or are in other ways influenced by the unelected bodies.

3. Some people claim the media breeds cynicism about politics and politicians which discourages political interest and involvement. Is this true? If so, how can the media play a positive role in encouraging political involvement?

I think the media have been on aggregate neutral in terms of the image of politics. I hope however that one day we will be in a place where people vote based on the policies rather than their general feeling, or family loyalties. If this is ever to happen, we need the media to play a positive role; we need a single source that we can go to to find out the real differences between policies stated simply and non partisanly, and some expert, non partisan analysis of the likely effects of these policies, together with summaries of the arguments for and against. Until we really know what we are choosing, how can anyone vote feeling that they are making an informed decision. Beyond that, we need independant, non partisan analysis of the performance of the current government. With conflicting figures being bandied by all sides, it’s become impossible to know which figures to trust, or to find out what assumptions underlie them. An internet accessible archive for the easy researching of political policies and performance, that archives public commentary and contains both indepth analysis and simply stated research could fit this bill. That way, every citizen could easily inform themselves about the salient facts and arguments to the depth that they are interested in. The BBC are more trusted than politicians, and could play a large role in making some of this happen.

4. The number of people voting in General Elections has declined considerably in the last ten years. Turnout is also very low in elections for local councils, devolved institutions and the European Parliament. What changes would encourage a larger number of people to feel it is worth voting?

People have to feel that their views are represented, so changing the party system would be a good start. Another practice that makes a mockery of democracy is tactical voting. Tactical voting needs to be discouraged. The idea that people could get something better by voting for something different to what they want is abhorrent. A good way of discouraging tactical voting while increasing general fairness would be to change the system from first past the post to a condorcet criteron method. My favourite for this would be a form of Ranked Pairs method, which also diminishes the problem of vote splitting. Making it easy to vote for topics that really will affect peoples lives at a local level would almost certainly help, although such things would require technological solutions and things like that must be treated with care. Encouraging younger people to become politicians would interest the young more. Encouraging politicians to become more accessible – to respond to emails, perhaps keep blogs as some are doing would help. I think a clarification about the extent to which a representative should vote with his opinion, the opinion of his constituency or the opinion of his party would be helpful. It would also be sensible to have an option on the ballot paper for “I do not feel that I am adequately represented by any of these options”, that way at least people who believed the system was failing them could express that in a way that would have a chance of being listened to. Along with a “not sufficiently represented” option, a “I don’t feel that I’m sufficiently informed to make a decision” option could also be available. If such items were added, I would also have no problem with compulsory voting. Voting is a duty as well as a right.

5. Some people argue that voting in elections is not enough. They believe today�s citizens need an opportunity to discuss and have a direct say over individual policies through other means such as referenda, internet forums and public meetings designed to have significant power to influence political decisions. Would more opportunities to do this attract participants and would they encourage greater trust in the policies pursued by politicians?

I am very excited about the direct democracy possibilites of technology, however there are many difficult problems. It is an absolute must that any system that is put in place must have source code that can be checked by anyone to ensure fairness. Systems for people who are scared of technology must be put into place, perhaps a community internet cafe with very simple voting machines. Any citizen must have the right to check the machines are operating correctly. These problems could all be overcome, and I believe that if people are well informed and have the ability to make a difference to things they care about, then they will participate. Fora and meetings are beneficial, but mainly for discussion. To participate, people must feel informed and empowered. The BBCs iCan is a wonderful example of the way that technology can help get people who normally just complain to their friends to start to involve others and actually make advances. Once the major problems with the current system are sorted out, an advertising campaign that highlights the fact that individuals can change things with examples of ordinary people who managed political change in their communities, and a snappy slogan to indicate that people with strong opinions have a duty to try to change society rather than just moaning would be really helpful.

Everyone will be more likely to take part if they actually believe there is any meaning to what they do politically. Less representated groups in society (including young people, and normal non politician people) will be more interested in politics if they see some of their own representing them. For the young, schools can have a big part to play. Many schools have some sort of student political body, but they have no power. This educates the students that the political body is always subservient to vested interests. To actually interest students in politics requires that student bodies should have money to spend as they see fit, and are in positions to make genuine decisions that affect the students lives. They also should have power to appeal school decisions. This would teach students that campaigning can make a difference, and would make them more interested for the future. Also simply understanding political systems can make a great difference. Model Parliaments and Model UNs etc. with schools competing could increase interest.

7. Is there anything further about participation and engagement in democracy you would like to add?

I think there is a general perception of politicians as being essentially unlike ordinary people. In universities, the parties are peopled with strange activists or Borris Johnson-a-likes, on TV and the Radio, the politicians look strange and talk funny. Many think that politicians are weirdly liberal and PC and feel like the ordinary anglosaxon isn’t being represented because we have to be so careful to represent the minorities. This is an enormous concern of many people. I think education and articles specifically targetted to address this could help. A formal process for people who feel they’re being discriminated against by their council for being white/anglo-saxon/straight/not disabled/other non minority, would be useful so that these things are considered in the open, and the people can see that justice is being done instead of spreading disinformation. There is also fear of getting involved, because the current trend is the removal of civil liberties, and this makes people more reticent about revealing their opinions and trying to change things. Also there is a feeling that even when an issue is large enough to cause many people to campaign and march on it, the government takes no notice. This is probably due to the arrogance of the government, which is understandable when the only other electable party is unelectable. As long as we have a first past the post, two party system, we will always get arrogant governments that will continue to estrange those they are responsible to. Any true government should have a few vocal dissenting voices within it or we have no chance that both sides are being heard. Transparency is important, as is the fact that when representations are made, they should be listened to. The recent ignoring of large quantities of feedback from people using the internet in the national ID scheme consultation is an example of things that reduce peoples trust in the political system.

Resources:

• The IDEA website is useful for voter turnout statistics in various countries, and for lots of other information.
• The Power inquiry is collecting responses to the questions above.
• The Electoral Commission is an independant body set up to recommend things to parliament.
• The Ranked Pairs electoral method.
• iCan from the BBC tries to get people involved.

Yes, ok, perhaps “For whom should I have voted”, but you guys don’t like the dative case.

This system compares your views on a number of different policies with the views of Kerry and Bush. Where one candidate has made a statement on something but the other hasn’t, agreeing with that statement will increase the score of the candidate that agrees, but not decrease the score of the one who hasn’t spoken about it. If a candidate disagrees with your view, then their score is decreased while a candidate that agrees with you gets a higher score. The score difference for each question is determined by how important you rate it. 0 means does not affect score, 5 affects the score 5 times more than 1. If you see two questions along similar lines and feel like you’ve already rated that topic and don’t want to rate it twice, then set its importance to 0. If you don’t know what a topic means, or haven’t decided what your view is on it, then set its importance to 0.

The candidates stances on these policies were taken mainly from this msnbc page and this bbc page. If you know of other policies that should be in this set of questions, please feel free to send them to me, or comment on this page. I need to know both Bush and Kerrys view on it ideally. If you’re european and need to see a counsellor because your views agree with Bush’s more than you’d realised, then counselling.ltd.uk might be able to help.

Since it’s almost impossible to make people vote on issues rather than personality/media appeal, perhaps something like this should be the way elections are done in the future.

In case you’re wondering, I’m -20 Bush, +35 Kerry. I guess that makes me a Kerry supporter with a score of 55.

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function item(stance, bushMultiplier, kerryMultiplier) {
this.stance = stance;
this.bushMultiplier = bushMultiplier;
this.kerryMultiplier = kerryMultiplier;
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var topics = new Array();

// Abortion

topics[0] = new item("Abortion illegal in almost all cases", 1, -1);
topics[1] = new item("14th Ammendment extends to unborn children", 1, -1);
topics[2] = new item("Oppose international organisations involved with abortion",1,-1);
topics[3] = new item("Oppose school clincs that refer or counsel contraception and abortion",1, -1);
topics[4] = new item("Would not pick Supreme Court nominees that disagreed with own view on abortion", 0, 1);
topics[5] = new item("Oppose partial-birth abortion", 1, -1);

// Budget

topics[6] = new item("Raise taxes for the wealthy", -1, 1);

// Death Penalty

topics[7] = new item("Support the death penalty", 1, -1);
topics[8] = new item("Would stop federal executions", -1, 1);
topics[9] = new item("The death penalty is racially biased and flawed", -1, 1);

// Economy

topics[10]= new item("Extend tax cuts", 1, -1);
topics[11]= new item("Simplify income tax", 1, 0);
topics[12]= new item("Make it harder to make stupid law suits", 1, 0);
topics[13]= new item("Reduce regulations and reporting requirements", 1, 0);
topics[14]= new item("Tax free medical savings account", 1, 0);
topics[15]= new item("Allow small businesses to pool their insurance requirement", 1, 0);
topics[16]= new item("Employer tax credit for creating new jobs", 0, 1);
topics[17]= new item("Employee heath care tax credit for small and mid business", 0, 1);
topics[18]= new item("Remove tax credit for US companies overseas", 0, 1);
topics[19]= new item("Onetime tax break for companies repatriating assets", 0, 1);
topics[20]= new item("Supports the Estate tax (with high exemption levels)", 0, 1);
topics[21]= new item("Lower top corporate tax", 0, 1);
topics[22]= new item("Raise minimum wage by $2 per hour", 0, 1);

// Education

topics[23] = new item("Tougher standards in education",1,-1);
topics[24] = new item("Link school funding to student test results",1,0);
topics[25] = new item("Tax credits on tuition fees",0,1);
topics[26] = new item("Vouchers to encourage parents to send their children to private schools",1,-1);
topics[27] = new item("Immediate citizenship for tax payers of 5 years standing with no criminal record",-1,1);
topics[28] = new item("Keep state and church separate",-1,1);
topics[29] = new item("Against partial privatization of Social Security.",-1,1);
topics[30] = new item("Require companies switching to cheaper pension plans to offer retiring workers choice",0,1);
topics[31] = new item("Protect MTBE makers from cancer lawsuits",1,-1);
topics[32] = new item("Drill for oil in Alaska",1,-1);
topics[33] = new item("Don't use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower prices",1,-1);
topics[34] = new item("Oppose raising mileage requirements on car manufacturers",1,-1);
topics[35] = new item("Log federal forests rather than clear bush to prevent fires",1,-1);
topics[36] = new item("Strict cap on mercury emissions quickly",-1,1);
topics[37] = new item("Store nuclear waste in Nevada",1,-1);
topics[38] = new item("Emphasis on alliances rather than unilateral action",-1,1);
topics[39] = new item("Treat the UN as a full partner",-1,1);
topics[40] = new item("Try to spread democracy in the Middle East",1,0);
topics[41] = new item("Reduce the black market in nuclear components",1,0);
topics[42] = new item("Ban same-sex marriages",1,0);
topics[43] = new item("Open homosexuality is incompatible with military service",1,-1);
topics[44] = new item("Ban job discrimination against homosexuals",0,1);
topics[45] = new item("Grant gun makers immunity from lawsuits",1,-1);
topics[46] = new item("Subsidise drug costs for low income patients",1,0);
topics[47] = new item("Unemployed tax credit to help pay for insurance",0,1);
topics[48] = new item("Government help pays for medical costs if insurers agree to hold down premiums",0,1);
topics[49] = new item("Federal support to expand access to state-administered health insurance for children.",0,1);
topics[50] = new item("Allow non employees to get the federal government employee health care programme",0,1);
topics[51] = new item("Human cloning is unethical for whatever reason",1,0);
topics[52] = new item("Restrict stem cell research to existing lines only.",1,-1);
topics[53] = new item("Supports the entire Patriot Act",1,-1);
topics[54] = new item("Favours expanding the Patriot Act",1,-1);
topics[55] = new item("Community defense service started",0,1);
topics[56] = new item("Going to war in Iraq was the right decision",1,-1);
topics[57] = new item("Replace US troops in Iraq with US led NATO force within 4 years",0,1);
topics[58] = new item("The National Missile Defence system is a good idea",1,-1);

for (i=0; i<topics.length; i++) {
document.writeln("

“);
}//–>

<input type=button value="Calculate Scores" onClick="
bushSoFar=0;
kerrySoFar=0;
for (i=0; i<topics.length; i++) {
if (eval('check'+i).checked) {
myChoice=1;
} else {
myChoice=-1;
}
scoreArea = eval('score'+i);
importance=0;
for (j=0; j