Revitalising Local Democracy
Ideas for Improving Turnout and Participation
Author: Tom Shakespeare, Harry Phibbs, Ken Ritchie, Peter Facey - Jul 24, 2009
Voter turnout at local and national elections is consistently low, and falls far behind most other Western countries. But why is this?
This edition of Policy Platform aims to explore this question and to understand what may be required to re-engage people in a political process which increasingly large numbers of people distrust or do not care about.
In the first article Harry Phibbs suggests that Councils should be doing more to communicate with residents, and not waste ‘vast sums’ of money on bogus consultation exercises, and that the key is making sure when voters want something done, the Council should do something about it.
The second article by Ken Ritchie from the Electoral Reform Society suggests that the whole electoral system needs to change to overcome the ‘forgone conclusion’ mentality which pervades the current system.
The final article by Peter Facey from Unlock Democracy, suggests that local government needs far more sweeping powers and autonomy to make local government more locally accountable.
Reading through the articles there are four key themes which emerge. Firstly, in all three articles there is recognition that communication and genuine citizen involvement in the political process is important to bolster representative democracy. Secondly, the electoral system needs to be revisited to ensure that people are not disillusioned about the value of their vote. Thirdly, the voting process can be made more appealing. Finally, central government needs to think about radical decentralisation.
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