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Theme : democracy
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Extreme Democracy
There's a new book out (which has also been published as a weblog) called Extreme Democracy. Contributors include Howard Rheingold, Steven Johnson, Joi Ito and others. Say the editors: "The basic unit of organization in an extreme democracy is the activist, a citizen engaged with an issue of concern about which they are willing to invest their time and effort to evolve relevant policy, whether at the local, state, national or international level." Steven's piece is the only one I've read so...
from : paulmiller
12th August 2004
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Apathy on the Beeb
Perhaps foolishly I expected them to appear at the top of the page (where the headlines are) but they never turned up – heading straight to the bottom of the page where the more minor stories are situated. Checking back to the top of the page again I realised that ‘New playstation set for May debut’ and ‘Victims brother pleads for sharks’ actually featured higher in the running order. Is this simply a product of all the briefing that goes on before these events...
from : duncanoleary
12th July 2004
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Whitehall Wiki
This is the first example I've come across of a government department or quango using a wiki for consultation purposes. How long before we follow suit? We should definitely try this for one or two Demos projects.
from : jameswilsdon
28th June 2004
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Europe goes to the Polls
Now the dust is starting to settle, and Peter Snow's swingometer has been put back into the BBC storeroom for another year, one can begin to try and make sense of the recent European Parliamentary election results.It seems that the UK electorate were not alone in their choosing to vote for Eurosceptic and anti-Brussels candidates. Not only in the UK, but in new Member-States like Poland and Slovakia, voters gave a big thumbs-down to a federal vision of Europe. For those of us concerned about...
from : alistairdavidson
15th June 2004
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Blog Standard?
First off, Tom posted a story about Access2Democracy, a new e-democracy NGO launched by leader of the Greek socialist party George Papandreou. The posting itself would be unremarkable (no offence Tom) were it not for the flurry of comments it prompted. In and amongst a series of arguments about whether or not the internet genuinely did permit new forms of democratic deliberation, there was an unassuming but robust defence of his position from Mr Papandreou himself. Okay so it’s hard to...
from : pauljoseph
30th May 2004
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women, 'emotional government' and the makeover takeover
If the discourse of much of political life is still conducted in a rather 'male', confrontational manner, then perhaps Paul Skidmores's notion of emotionally intelligent government offers a way out of this gender polarised situation. As Paul writes, government needs to be 'smarter about how it interacts with citizens, about how it interprets citizens wants and needs, and about how it understands its own strengths and weaknesses in creating change.'Looking at broader cultural shifts, the...
from : alistairdavidson
27th April 2004
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The Constituency Project
When we think of political leadership, we tend to think to the top of the tower, to the king of the castle. But high politics are under pressure, unable the reverse the erosion of public trust and the decline of formal participation through voting and party membership. The problem is legitimacy and academics who have wrestled with this dilemma - popularly referred to as the 'democratic deficit' - paint a picture of the 'executization' of parliamentary politics. No where is this more true then...
from : petermacleod
16th April 2004
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Fat Taxery in Ontario
The government of Ontario has added two lines to its forthcoming budget that the health minister hopes will help dissuade smokers and junk food junkies. The government will rachet up the cigarrette tax, pull high sugar and fatty foods out of school cafeterias and revoke the sales tax exemption currently enjoyed by fast food vendors who sell meals costing less than $4 (?1.80) Estimates suggest that the government stands to raise as much as $200 million from the tax.Childhood obesity is a...
from : petermacleod
15th April 2004
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Politi-Cola
Last week I watched two different programmes charting the progress of two new brands of Cola - Mecca Cola and Qibla Cola. These new brands are Cola with a difference though, they engage with your politics as well as your taste buds. Both brands consider their selling point to be their association with a stance on certain issues, such as the future of Palestine. This left me with a few questions?does this belie the hypothesis that people no longer believe in collective solutions to problems?...
from : duncanoleary
25th February 2004
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Cafe Scientifique
As I mentioned at the Monday meeting, last week I took part in a lively debate about nanotechnology in Lancaster. There's a review of the evening here. The Lancaster group that organised it is part of a wider network of 'science cafes', which aim to encourage public debate about science and technology - an innovative effort to move these discussions out of the expert/policy/media space and into the public realm.
from : jameswilsdon
24th February 2004
