Not since the Cold War have the world’s democracies faced such sustained pressure.
Countries like Russia and China are sowing discord. Social media platforms are polarizing debate and amplifying misinformation. Populist parties are luring voters by blaming elites and promising to dismantle government. As the Centre for the Future of Democracy at the University of Cambridge reports, all of this is driving down public confidence in democratic governments.
The responses are well known: we need to vigorously promote democracy at home and abroad. We need to harden our electoral systems and safeguard voter rights. To energize our democracies, we could make our electoral system more reflective of voter intentions, pursue party finance reforms and lower the voting age.
Make no mistake, we need all of these things — but we also need to think about how democracy itself will evolve. It’s time governments in Canada actively include and fund citizen engagement in policy-deliberation.
Fortunately, a quiet revolution is already underway. From Australia to Ireland to France to Canada, many democratic societies have begun experimenting with new approaches that dramatically expand the range of opportunities available for people to play a meaningful role in shaping their societies. These countries are creating new roles for citizens to fill which give them a real voice in shaping the policies that affect their lives.
The age of the elected representative is evolving to include new citizen representatives as well.
Like jurors, these citizen representatives are randomly selected. Already you can find them in Paris advising the mayor on urban priorities, in Belgium sitting on parliamentary committees alongside elected MPs, and in Canada, advising ministers on how to regulate social media. No longer is politics just for partisans and bureaucrats or something to watch at a distance. Collectively, these citizen representatives and the citizens’ assemblies on which they serve presage a future where everyone has a chance to take a seat at the table.
Evidence shows that participation in these assemblies pays a democratic dividend and leads to increased levels of political engagement, greater civic literacy and a deeper appreciation for different perspectives. Participants come to understand that there are rarely easy answers to complex issues, while governments earn a mandate to take what might otherwise be controversial decisions, on issues ranging from climate change to reproductive rights, from police reform to combatting online abuse and hate speech — and more.
This is why we need to make this participatory approach a much bigger part of our democratic culture, and why we’re calling on all levels of government in Canada to create Democratic Action Funds to invest in citizen problem-solving.
How would a Democratic Action Fund work?
Each year, local, provincial and national governments would commit to invest five per cent of the cost of administering its elections in a Democratic Action Fund. These arms-length trusts would then use the proceeds to cost-share high quality participatory programs across government that involve citizens in policy reform.
For instance, in Canada, where national elections cost approximately $630 million to administer, a Canadian Democratic Action Fund would receive $30 million annually and empower somewhere on the order of 6,000 Canadians to serve on a wide range of problem-solving committees, task forces and assemblies. It would dramatically expand the role of citizens in advising our public institutions and ministries.
While our elected legislatures are too often at an impasse over how to prioritize responses to the climate crisis, respond to the pressures that inflation and possible recession have put on the economy, expand coverage of public health care to be more equitable to all, and restore public confidence in democratic institutions — to name just a few of their challenges — citizens serving in various capacities, with a mandate to consider specific problems and recommend consensus solutions, can create meaningful change and strengthen our democracy.
They can especially succeed if they are supported at the highest levels of government.
By providing the public with genuine opportunities to become engaged in the work of government between elections, we will remind citizens — and the representatives they have elected — that it is their interests our political institutions are designed to serve.
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