Category: Uncategorised
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We’re growing!
Member snapshot as of today. 47,373 answers 838 people That’s an average of 57 votes per person. Not bad when you realise that you’ll only vote 14 times in general elections.
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Successful participatory democracy experiment is actually quite boring
A common first reaction to the idea of more participative democracy is that dangerous and radical things will happen – ie the “we’ll bring back hanging” cliché. So it is that I love this finding an experiment by our friends at Loomio reported on Civicist. At the end of the four weeks, after five discussions consisting…
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Good things to read
Inspired by the #SummerOfTech alternative summer reading list for MPs (and everyone) here are our picks, and some other good things we’ve been reading here at Represent. Our favourites: More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First by Steve Hilton Blueprint for a Revolution by Srdja Popovic Betterness by Umair Haque Rebooting Democracy by Manuel Arriga Hardcore…
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Things we’ve been reading recently
25% of Estonians electoral votes are cast online. Laws have been updated to address the issues of privacy, security and trust, without reverting to isolation and protectionism. Manuel Arriaga, author of the excellent Rebooting Democracy discusses the possibility of a “Citizen’s Chamber” as an additional political entity in Foreign Policy. “Being able to affect how things are run in…
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This Is How Fast America Changes Its Mind
via Bloomberg There are two main points to take from this graph. 1. Change is happening faster – that much is obvious. 2. Compassion is changing. This one’s a little harder to discern, but either: a) Our ‘circle of compassion’ is expanding to include more people who aren’t like us, or b) Our ‘circle of social…
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8 ways online democracy changes everything.
The chances are you’re not going to get the MP you voted for — but that might not matter for very much longer. There is a quiet revolution taking place in democracy, bringing new thinking to how we take decisions together. For the first time ever, what you want — your preferences, values, and ideas — can be heard locally, nationally,…
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Can you help? Are you in a group which wants more people involved in decisions?
What we’re looking for: We’d like to hear from groups who can help us test and improve our new features for decision making within an interest group. Examples include: Businesses who want to engage employees in decisions and get ideas from across a large team Should we have more vegetarian options at lunch? Shall we try to…
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7 steps to a political system we can all be proud of
One of the worst things about elections is that we all go along with a lie which none of us believe: “This is the best we can do.” We can do far better, and if you’ve ever shouted at the radio or watched the Leaders Debate without believing that they are amongst the smartest people…
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5 Predictions for the 2020 General Election
1. It may not be in 2020. The outcome of the 2015 elections is not going to be a stable parliament. The coalition leaders are not acquainted to working as effective, mixed teams; and the media will insist on reporting division and personality. This, coupled with the scale and importance of the critical decisions we citizens need them to lead…
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We’re for .everyone
You may have read Martha Lane-Fox‘s call for: A new institution could be the catalyst we need to shape the world we want to live in and Britain’s role in that world. Today, we’re letting big commercial technology platforms shape much of our digital lives, dominating the debate about everything from online privacy to how…
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How to make important decisions: locally, regionally, globally.
Represent exists to map the world’s opinions and values so that we might find better ways of working together for the greater good. But if we’re to represent people globally, we are going to need some really good maps and really clever data manipulation. Which is why I am so incredibly proud of our tech team…
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Do health messages work?
So this is interesting. We’re quite young (just 3 weeks) so we don’t have that much in the way of big numbers that we can point to and confidently say “THAT, my friends, is a FACT!” But in spite of that, just take a look at these responses to the proposition “Cut VAT on sunscreen.” There is…
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Why can’t voting be like when you go to McDonalds.
Why can’t voting be like when you go to McDonalds. You often struggle what to go with, but whatever you chose, you’re always satisfied with the outcome? Jack’s vision. (Not sure McDonald’s does that for me, but I certainly appreciate the sentiment. Why is politics a choice of the least bad and not the most…
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The New Extraordinary
There’s a lot of chat about the ‘new normal’. That’s good news for two reasons. First, pointing at once-radical ideas and saying ‘huh, that’s normal now’ helps us see and believe in change. Not only does that help us get over our lack of agency and/or apathy, it helps us tackle the problem of declining…
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Democracy: process or project?
For #democracyday on the BBC this morning, Professor Michael Sandel hosted a lively debate about whether democracy works. He summed up by drawing a difference between democracy as process and democracy as project. Instead of conversations around first past the post vs. proportional representation, let’s make a project to ensure democracy addresses the stuff we…
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2015 will see the creation of new political parties organised in radically different ways
Lovely prediction from Nesta that new politics will take root in the UK this year has it has across the rest of the world in the last few years. We’re hoping to be a part of that. This is going to be exciting. Very exciting. “My prediction is that the aftermath of the UK election…
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The visions of the future we offer our children become self-fulfilling prophecies.
The visions we offer our children shape the future. It matters what those visions are. Often they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Dreams are maps. I do not think it irresponsible to portray even the direst futures; if we are to avoid them, we must understand that they are possible. But where are the alternatives? Where are…
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Greater Manchester to have elected mayor
Greater Manchester to have elected mayor The road to regional autonomy and civic engagement continues!