Page 29 - Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections

We think a key problem we need to address is that raw public opinion has too much power and influence. We ask people what they think before they have had time to think and the results get a momentum of their own. Many policy issues are hard to fix and will involve significant costs – and for some people to necessarily be made worse off. These people have a lot of incentive to complain, and public opinion can be quite easy to sway. Around the world, elections are almost always won by the side with the most money: this one statistic points to the fact that public opinion is easy to sway with slogans that fit within a short commercial or a shorter slogan on social media! But this doesn’t make the policy problems go away: if there was an easy answer, we assume someone would have used it and the problem would be solved. So how can governments overcome easily influenced and agitated public opinion and avoid ‘Government by Twitter’? As you can’t ignore it, then we suggest you find something better: public judgment. An important idea to think about, and to contrast with, is that in many countries a trial jury is used to resolve important questions that can result in people being jailed for the rest of their lives. But a trial jury is not required to give their reasoning behind a decision. The citizen’s assembly is required to provide such reasoning – assessing the logic of their thought process, testing their understanding of the facts, explaining the context its final decision. You should note that nowhere applies justice by asking for the raw public opinion of thousands of citizens through a two minute polling exercise. If you were arrested, I’m sure you wouldn’t like to have your guilt or innocence decided this way! The people of a jury are a small group who manage to move beyond public opinion by thinking and learning instead of just reacting. That will be the focus of this Handbook.. 27