I've got
a short, reflective article on democracy, the referendum, and what's really important --- for me, anyhow! ---over on the relatively new '
The 2016 Wish Tree' website ...
... most of it won't be new to regular readers of this blog, but thought I'd flag it up, and post the text below:
Whatever result arises from the September 2014 referendum on
Scottish independence, my one-big-wish for the period following the next
Holyrood elections, in May 2016, would be exactly the same …
… I would wish to wake up on Friday 6th May 2016 in the midst of a
much more deliberative democracy than the one in which I live in at the
moment.
And by deliberative democracy, I basically mean that decisions should
be arrived at by more than the simple aggregation of preferences that
occur when we vote. Before final decisions on public services are made,
there should be much more direct-deliberation, by the very citizens who
are the recipients of those same public services.
And frankly, I don’t believe a specific yes or no result, in the
September 2014 referendum, is more or less likely to ensure such an
outcome.
I say that as someone who has now been an elected Councillor for over
a decade, and latterly having been Council Leader in Scotland’s Capital
City for over a year now.
But I’m no careerist politician and did not get involved in frontline
politics until I was in my late thirties, having spent well over a
decade before that being very directly involved in a whole host of civic
campaign groups and organisations.
So – rather sadly – I have thought about these issues over several
decades now, from both inside and outside the mainstream political
arena, and remain wholly convinced that a more deliberative democracy is
primarily about political culture and not political structure.
I guess I first became involved in the wider, democratic reform movement back in late-1990 when I joined
Charter88 (as it was then) when I lived and worked in Stoke-on-Trent, and shortly thereafter attended the Charter88
Manchester Convention
in November 1991. It was a complete turning-point in my political
awareness and a period of a few months for which I will be forever
grateful. If anyone involved in organising that Convention is listening –
you changed my political life.
Shortly after, during late 1991/early 1992 I think it was, I joined the
Electoral Reform Society
(ERS), and in 1993 I moved back to Scotland (Edinburgh to be precise)
and went completely native within the devolution-movement and the
imminent 1997
referendum campaign, eventually being elected as a
Local Government Councillor in Edinburgh for the first time in 1999.
Back then, in the early 1990’s, it is true that the political
structures of the wider United Kingdom were very, very different from
today – here’s what didn’t exist back then:
• A Scottish Parliament
• The use of proportional representation (AMS) to elect that Scottish Parliament
• A Welsh Assembly
• The use of proportional representation (AMS) to elect that Welsh Assembly
• A Northern Ireland Assembly
• The use of proportional representation (STV) to elect that Northern Ireland Assembly
• A Greater London Authority (GLA)
• The use of proportional representation (MMP) to elect that Greater London Authority
• The use of proportional representation (Regional List System) to elect the European Parliament
• A House of Lords free from hereditary peers
• The Freedom of Information Act (England and Wales)
• The Freedom of Information Act (Scotland)
• The incorporation of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) into British Law
• The use of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) to elect Scottish Local Government
• I’m one of 1,222 Councillors in Scotland now elected by
STV 
It’s not a bad list of achievements within a 20-year timeframe … and we all too readily forget it.
And these hard won reforms are not enough for me, and come 2031, I’d like to see the list above added to by the following:
• The implementation of fixed term Parliaments at Westminster
• The use of proportional representation to elect English Local Government
• The use of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) to elect the House of Lords
• and yes, the use of proportional representation to elect the House of Commons
• Votes for those of 16-years of age, for all levels of Government
• The formation of Regional Assemblies in England
• All as part of a federal-settlement for the United Kingdom
• All contained within a Written Constitution
Do I really think these things can be achieved in the next 20-years?
Yes I do. The evidence of the previous two decades proves that these
seismic constitutional changes can be won, with hard work,
determination, and a willingness to learn lessons and keep going in the
hardest of moments.
I do thus remain an old-fashioned UK-(con)federalist, and will vote no next year.
But I also have a shocking acknowledgement to make – I don’t think
the sky will fall in, if Scotland votes yes … life will go on; the earth
will continue to turn; the sun will rise.
Of course, the actual result will have a profound political impact on
the country we live in. But neither possible result – and I only wish
more politicians would honestly admit this – will be a panacea for all
of Scottish society’s ills.
I completely accept that others, have arrived at a different decision
– many of them may have settled on supporting Scottish Independence via
a similar, constitutional (and political) trajectory to my own … that’s
fine by me; I respect their view; and hope they respect mine.
But, to return to my earlier point – such changes to the current UK
constitutional set-up, or even a move to outright Independence for
Scotland, would not guarantee of themself a more deliberative politics.
And you really would need to be inhabiting a wholly different world
from the one I live in, if you weren’t aware that trust between the
electorate and those of us either elected, or employed, to serve that
electorate, has broken down badly. It’s no different here in Scotland,
to the rest of the UK. Or, to the rest of the democratic world, for that
matter.
And we need more than structural change – much more – to fundamentally alter that reality of our current political narrative.
The good news is that all sorts of deliberative techniques and models
exist; enough to fill a whole, further article. Anyone interested could
do worse that take a quick glance at Participedia:
http://www.participedia.net/en
(an open global knowledge community for researchers and practitioners
in the field of democratic innovation and public engagement) which will
give a quick flavour of just what is possible.
Sadly to date, few Governments, of any political persuasion, have
implemented a full-scale programme of such change to ‘the way we do
politics’.
But I remain the eternal optimist that such change will come … and
regardless of whether there’s a yes or no result next September … I
might just wake up on Friday 6th May 2016 in the midst of a much more
deliberative democracy than the one in which I live in at the moment.
Councillor Andrew Burns is the Leader of the City of Edinburgh
council, and a member of the Labour Party. You can follow him on twitter
@AndrewDBurns.
Don’t forget to follow us on twitter as well @2016wishtree
My last day in the Office for this year ...
