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  • 6 min read

What are the two issues relating to democracy that needs public traction? (The Main Question After the 20th of March 2019 Meeting)

I would like to know before setting up the next Designing Open Democracy meetup.

What are the two issues relating to democracy that needs public traction?

Throw in your ideas and we can use that to shape the next meet!

Brian Khuu

  • We need to get parties and the goverment system to investigate not just their voting system... but focus even more on how their nomination process work. If the nomination process is not democratic, then even with a democratic voting process, the outcome will not be democratic. Garbage in, garbage out.

  • We need to push existing parties to focus on improving their own internal democracy.

Robert Crouch

  • Improving the public trust on the integrity of election oversight processes and audit process. (Who watches the watcher?)
  • How does public emotions effect election outcome? Can this be mitigated?
    • @mofosyne --> @Robert-Crouch I think you be interested in the discussion by Nicolas Gruen (https://discuss.designingopendemocracy.com/t/citizens-democracy-presentations-and-q-a-monday-august-21-2017/70/2), about how Vox Pop can lead to bad democratic outcome in election due to only getting a short snapshot of the public emotion that may not be a considered opinion of the public.

Kenneth Coghill (Via email)

  1. Submission to APS Review responding to "Priorities for Change", advocating stronger commitment to civil society engagement.

  2. Submission to Open Government Forum urging implementation of Commitment to civil society engagement.

  3. What will block democratic reform?

  4. What are the effect of poverty and inequality in democratic civil engagement?

Carol Campbell (Via Meetup. Slow internet)

  • The effect of Trump on truth, and the knock on effect to true informed Democracy
  • Particularly trust in democratic perticipation having any effect on society

Peter Howard

  • Education focused on the possible alternative democratic approaches. The ongoing research on the level of trust in systems of government around the world shows the Australia has very low levels in trust in particular with our political system. The aim should be to enable people to see alternative ways in which their views could be truly represented.

  • Engagement could be focused on the major issues facing the country. And the technology is available by which everyone in the country could be engaged with a high level of confidence and security. I would also propose using our national broadcasters (ABC and SBS) in a formal role to facilitate the rich conversations on policy.

https://discuss.designingopendemocracy.com/t/meeting-notes-for-20th-march-2019-starting-a-democracy-forum-think-tank-is-it-needed-whats-required-for-one/173/3?u=mofosyne

Fernandalila:

  1. Stagnant Wages and Union Strength:
  2. Australia has faced stagnant wages for a decade, leading to economic growth favoring capital over wages.
  3. This situation exacerbates inequality and impacts the economy negatively.
  4. The "Change the Rules" campaign by unions aims to counter this by strengthening unions.

  5. Fernandalila emphasizes the need for public support to change industrial relations legislation.

  6. Recycling Crisis:

  7. Australia faces a recycling crisis as other countries, including China, no longer accept our recycling.
  8. Fernandalila calls for a sustainable solution to address the dumping of recycling into landfills.

Extra Question Response: - Fernandalila dismisses the idea that co-operatives can replace unions and asserts the necessity of unions to defend the working class. - She highlights the correlation between union membership and favorable wages/working conditions. - Acknowledges the importance of revitalizing unions and criticizes Australia's laws limiting union activities.

Response to Brian's Clarification: - Fernandalila expresses understanding and notes her interpretation that any relevant issue needing traction can serve as an experiment for democratic participation. - Acknowledges the group's focus on a fair playing field for ideas, highlighting the need for a more equitable and better democracy. - Stresses the importance of bringing together people from opposing political spectrums to push for a fairer game, akin to improving sportsmanship in a football game.

  • 1 min read

A possible future topic for a Designing Open Democracy Panel: On moderation of a political debate

Here is a possible thought about what to host for the next designing open democracy conference. Maybe have a panel where moderators from various political debates can discuss on their strategies in keeping the peace in a debate.

One person to potentially invite to such an event is Tony from Q&A (His signature quib is "we don't cross examine our questioners", "I'll take that as a comment")

Designing Open Democracy : State of Democracy In Australia in 2018

We had an hour presentation at Linux Users Victoria under LUV November 2018 Main Meeting: Computerbank / Designing Open Democracy https://luv.asn.au/2018/11/07 where we gave a quick overview on the current state of democracy reform organisations in Australia.

Copy of the slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Jy-X4vp_sVMt5dq8mS97GMsx5HYRglXPK45SNlwYCOc/edit?usp=sharing

It went well. We talked about Flux, MiVote, sortition, and opens source voting.

We also pitched ourselves:

  • We are requesting more speakers and contributors to join us!
  • We also need more organisers to help plan and get more events going too!
  • If you can help, then contact us at:
  • contact@designingopendemocracy.com
  • We also have a discussion forum at https://discuss.designingopendemocracy.com/

Speakers Planned For 2019

  • Robert Crouch to talk about his idea of a better method of calculating voters intention that could replace our current way to tallying up preferences.
  • Guy Kennedy from Policy Incubator to talk about his policy development platform and how it is intended to assist the public, institutions and politicians make better policies.

Topics future speakers could touch on:

  • Governance: Transparency, Corruptions, Accountability
  • Structural Issues: Voting/Decision systems, Decentralisation, Cyber-security, Cognitive Security of the masses.
  • Cultural: Political apathy or learned helplessness, Information Asymmetry, Citizens engagement, Empathy deficit.

If you can present any of these topic let us know!

  • 1 min read

What if we replaced politicians with randomly selected people - TED Presentation

https://www.ted.com/talks/brett_hennig_what_if_we_replaced_politicians_with_randomly_selected_people

This is an interesting talk about sortition at TED, which we have covered in a previous presentation event by Nicholas Gruen and Huburtus Hofkirchner.

https://discuss.designingopendemocracy.com/t/citizens-democracy-presentations-and-q-a-monday-august-21-2017/70/1

Digital Democracy Forum - Distributed politics and governance; blockchain and beyond (Melbourne, Saturday May 5 2018)

RMIT University Melbourne Saturday 5th May from 9am – 6.30pm Not Affiliated with Designing Open Democracy

Free Tickets At EventBrite. Click Here To Register

Designing Open Democracy would like to inform anyone in Melbourne about a democracy related event called "Digital Democracy Forum - Distributed politics and governance" to be hosted in RMIT University (Melbourne) on 5th May from 9am - 6.30pm.

While this event is not affiliated to us, it may still be of interest to those interested in electronic voting. This inaugural conference between MiVote and RMIT University showcases the latest talent in Australian entrepreneurship and innovation in collaborative decision-making and digital democracy.

Further details from the RMIT and MiVote team in: https://digitaldemocracyforum.wordpress.com/

Cheers, Designing Open Democracy Team

  • 17 min read

Evaluating Democracy Reform Proposals

Evaluating Democracy Reform Proposals

(Originally posted in https://nmerange.github.io//politics/evaluation/cause%20prioritisation/evaluating-democracy-reforms-working/ ), last updated May 1, 2018

Author: Nick Merange

There are several promising democracy reforms being developed at the moment, some based on technology while some are not. This is not a comprehensive list, but rather an overview of the most significant efforts I'm aware of after being exposed to several as part of Designing Open Democracy. The descriptions, evaluations and summaries here are rough and open to further revision, readers are encouraged to provide suggestions as to what things should be included and excluded in the following summaries or how I might consider adjusting my evaluations and why.

The primary goal here is to provide a rough evaluation of these interventions, their relative strengths and weaknesses in comparison to each other and our existing democracy according to certain criteria of what we're after in a good democratic system. The following comprises a list of interventions I'll be considering here.

The Decline of Parliamentary Democracy in a Post-Truth Era - Professor Gillian Triggs (Hosted By University Of Melbourne Law School)

Professor Gillian Triggs presented a public lecture on Friday 23 March 2018 on the topic, "The Decline of Parliamentary Democracy in a Post-Truth Era".

Audio Recordings: https://echo360.org.au/media/4fec6400-94d7-421c-96c9-566bd4b2cbd2/public

Notes: http://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/2727113/Professor-Gillian-Triggs,-The-decline-of-parliamentary-democracy-in-a-post-truth-era-a-Charter-of-Rights-for-Australia.pdf

http://law.unimelb.edu.au/about/mls-video-gallery/public-lectures-and-events/the-integrity-jim-carlton-lecture-23.03.18

A Charter will also allow Australia to meet its international obligations and resume its leadership position globally and regionally as a good international citizen. Above all,
Australia could return to the rule of law and to the principles of legality upon which
our democracy is based.

Open Government Partnership Australia (Canberra, Thursday February 22 2018)

Australia’s first Open Government National Action Plan 2016-18 comprises 15 ambitious commitments that promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. This website contains information on our Plan and progress towards its implementation.

Details in

https://ogpau.pmc.gov.au/2018/02/12/open-government-forum-meeting-22-february-2018

This may be of interest to the Accountability Round Table group as they are interested in combating corruption.

Proposed (Initial) Strategy of Designing Open Democracy

Rationale & Vision Designing Open Democracy so far has centered on the niche topic of “Democratic System Reform” and is a gathering of minds to think about ways that our current system could be improved, without endorsing any particular system.

While this topic is very interesting, we are at a juncture where we are trying to work out exactly what is group is and what we are trying to do. We are also aware that there are other groups with similar goals and we want to carve out a niche which teams up with rather than double ups existing efforts.

This could go in any number of directions: * A. Are we just fans of the idea who just want to talk about it for our own enjoyment? or * B. Are we trying to actually change the current system?