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Bob Bater's avatar

Bob Bater, April 25, 2024

I think you seriously undervalue the citizens' assembly as a means of bringing citizens closer to the decision-making process. You say that their agendas are 'driven by the politicians not by the people', but this is not necessarily so and has not been the case in many recent examples. You also say that 'participants are highly malleable by influential experts', as if this were not the case with our elected representatives. With CAs, it is down to the participants and the advisory group to agree the topics and questions to be deliberated upon and the experts and stakeholders to consult. And of course for the citizens themselves to do the deliberating. Given the choice between having an 'elected' party animal and her/his equally inexpert parliamentary cronies do the deliberation for us, and having citizens themselves produce recommendations which a proper constitution could require parliament to act upon, I know which I would choose.

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Doug German's avatar

Excellent article, but...

1.The Uniparty is in the driving seat, and the chances of them willingly vacating it are, at a rough guess, about zero

2. The bulk of the population are too busy watching Love Island, and in any event probably place safety higher than freedom on their list of priorities

3. Human nature

An actual, real-life, in-your-face revolution would be the only way to implement any half meaningful change, and to that end I've just placed an order on Amazon for a pitchfork

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