The A, B & C of Democracy: Or Cats in the Sack

- Blurb -

A handbook for building a better democracy. This is a learner' s guide to a better democracy. Sounds ambitious? It is. The catalyst for publishing this book is obvious. There' s no need to regurgitate the public' s disaffection with politics. Mired in the tawdry mechanics of political campaigning, and incapable of climbing out of cyclical electioneering contests, representative democracies are stuck in a rut. As Dawn Nakagawa, Vice President of the Berggruen Institute, writes, ' Democratic reform is hard. We are very attached to our constitutions and institutions, even to the point of romanticising it all. ' This handbook is an introduction to minipublics - otherwise known as citizens' juries or assemblies - interspersed with a few travel anecdotes to share the momentum behind the basic methodology of deliberative democracy. As the world accelerates into its digital future, with new modes of working, connecting and living - our parliaments remain relics from a primordial, ideological and adversarial age. Meanwhile urgent coordination challenges such as habitat destruction and climate change are stumbling to half-solutions in slow-motion. Collaboration amongst us humans in the Anthropocene is no longer just nice to have.