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Making politics work- Real representation and accountability

Rand Strauss thoughts on real representation:

I know little about Australian politics. But I think it's similar to politics elsewhere- it was never designed.

In general, representative democracies are dependent on representatives (people who know what constituents want) being accountable (serving constituents, reporting to them and being judged by them.)

The main component here is "accountability" which is a relationship. Actually, there are two important relationships, the one between the politician and the voters, and the one(s) between each voter and all voters together.

Relationships require communication. We don't have a communication system that supports either of these, and we've never designed one (until now- see below).

What are the Proposals for Reform? (Wednesday, January 25 2017)

This is a historical post from meetup.com, first meeting: https://www.meetup.com/DesigningOpenDemocracy/events/236606653/ , second meeting: https://www.meetup.com/DesigningOpenDemocracy/events/237420885/

Meeting Notes

  • First Meeting https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wWn0GLrhoHocJgKWwoM8w4csAAI9cmrDEf376ZuoU84/edit

  • Second Meeting https://docs.google.com/document/d/18adzCQwlS08v9AYkeOL6m0JxDWTjzsemI8UEfCuq9x4/edit

  • in Podcast
  • 2 min read

Inaugural Designing Open Democracy Meeting (Monday, December 19 2016)

This is a historical post from meetup.com where we sent the first message after our very first meeting at 19/12/2016

Hello Everyone!

Thanks very much to all who were able to attend the first Designing Open Democracy Meetup!

Below, I wish to give everyone a summary of what was discussed for those who were unable to make it, here's a summary of what occurred:

  • Introduction of attendees; background of their interest and involvement in democracy reform
  • Basic concepts of democracy (direct, representative, deliberative and majoritarian)