Welcome to our end-of-year update.
If you've been keeping track of newDemocracy social media you'll already have an idea of how busy we've been.
Throughout the year we've been asked to provide submissions to a number of Parliaments. We've contributed to an international first with the establishment of a Citizens’ Council in Ostbelgien (the German-speaking community of Belgium) – this is a new democratic institution developed to complement the elected parliamentary chamber.
This last part of the year has marked the publishing of our 'Democracy Beyond Elections' Handbook for the United Nations Democracy Fund. Alongside this, our first demonstration project has wrapped up in Fortaleza, Brazil with our operating partner Delibera Brasil.
We’re now proud to welcome the highly esteemed Elizabeth Proust to our Research Committee and add her insights to the democratic innovations opportunities possible in 2020.
We've just completed the 2019 edition of our Evidence Based Policy Research Project in which the IPA and Per Capita evaluated 20 different policies from various state and federal governments. We have also seen Byron Shire Council pass the recommendations of their recent Jury marking the beginning of a 2-year trial. And the Sydney 2050 Citizens' Jury complete their final report.
The conclusion of these projects marks the beginning for planning and design of three large projects for next year. Exciting prospects in large deliberations and complex, visible topics will mean 2020 proves to be an important year for newDemocracy.
Executive Director
Iain Walker
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Parliamentary Advice on Electoral Matters and Democracy
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newDemocracy has recently been invited to make submissions to a number of state and federal inquiries on electoral matters and democracy in general. You can read all of our advice on our website, with quick links to submissions here:
In a tumultuous time for democracy around the world, many state and national parliaments are looking for answers to similar problems: the ever declining level of engagement and an increasing shift away from traditional forms of party-based politics.
Weathering these changes by finding answers in innovative forms of making public decisions is proving to be one of the most promising opportunities for governments and everyday people. If we can find open and meaningful ways for the public to contribute to the decisions that impact their lives we can address many of the key concerns raised by those both inside and outside of government.
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We welcome Elizabeth Proust to our Research Committee
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Our Research Committee sets the direction for the work we do: what are the questions that need to be asked and tested in order to identify practical, workable ways to ‘do democracy better’ and take trusted, long-term decisions.
This month we welcome Elizabeth Proust to the Research Committee. Elizabeth has held leadership roles in the private and public sectors in Australia for over 30 years – across local, State and Federal Government, the oil industry and in banking. She has held senior positions in the ANZ Banking Group, the Victorian Government and was CEO of the City Of Melbourne – but is perhaps most widely known publicly as the immediate Past Chairman of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) which gives her additional insight into the reform need and task ahead.
We greatly appreciate this additional perspective as she joins our past Premiers (Nick Greiner and Geoff Gallop) and academic members (Prof. Martin Krygier and Carolyn Hendriks) on the Committee. We also acknowledge the contribution of Laura Tingle who is now stepping back due to her increased role with the ABC.
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United Nations Democracy Fund Demonstration Project:
Fortaleza, Brazil
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We have reached the first milestone in our 2-year project with the UN Democracy Fund. Our handbook "Democracy Beyond Elections" is designed to show how nations at various levels of development can apply the principles of representation and deliberation in ways that are appropriate for their economic and educational circumstances. It is now available, free online. You can expect hardcopies and translations in early 2020. We are also happy to encourage people to make this available for download for your own sites – especially in governments.
In addition to the handbook, our first international demonstration project has just been completed. The city of Fortaleza in Brazil has conducting their first citizens' jury, answering the question:
How can we make Fortaleza a cleaner city for everyone?
Our operating partners at Delibra Brasil conducted a Civic Lottery, choosing the localities in the city whose households will be chosen to register for the final selection.
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The citizens' have completed five days of deliberations. Notably, this appears to be one of the longest durations citizen projects delivered in South America – giving people real time to understand the difficult tradeoffs involved an to genuinely share the decision. You can read their final report here (in Portuguese).
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Participants in Fortaleza considered the question:
"How can we make Fortaleza a cleaner city for everyone?"
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World's first permanent citizens' parliament in Ostbelgien
The German-speaking community of Belgium has become the first region to institute a permanent role for randomly-selected everyday citizens as part of how they do democracy.
newDemocracy was invited to be part of a design advisory group including twelve international members who have designed and operated large scale and influential projects. The model, with some refinements made by the legislature, passed into law on February 25th 2019.
Notably, the citizens’ role is divided into two separate, independently-operating parts. One body of 24 randomly-selected citizens will set the agenda of topics to be considered by a second body. The bureaucracy will then produce an information kit of starting point materials and available experts to assist the second group: 25-50 people in randomly selected ‘juries’ of citizens brought together to find common ground on one of the issues. It is anticipated that up to three such assemblies will be conducted each year.
This is an important test environment. New democratic models are challenging to stage ‘in the wild’, and with their vote the German-speaking Parliament has allowed for a critical test: based on this the model can be expected to be refined. newDemocracy participated for exactly this reason: by being involved in trials like this we are best placed to advise government in Australia at the point that they are interested (and permitted) to innovate with their methods of finding representatives and making decisions.
This decision by the legislature came about following a successful trial of a single Citizens Jury-style process on childcare. This appears to demonstrate the value of project trials as a means to enable subsequent structural implementations.
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Citizens from the Sydney 2050 Citizens' Jury working in small groups.
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Evidence Based Policy Research Project, 2019
After a successful first project in 2018 that saw genuine engagement with elected representatives – notably in NSW which has an ongoing (November 2019) Upper House Procedures Inquiry focusing on the merits of formally adopting its use for handling highly contentious bills – the Evidence Based Policy Research Project has been repeated in 2019.
In a ‘double blind’ exercise the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), a self-described ‘free-market’ think tank identified with the Right of politics, and Per Capita Australia, a self-labelled ‘progressive’ think tank identified with the Left assessed the same set of 20 policies drawn from around the country. Again, it is clear that organisations with very different policy outlooks can agree on when a good process is followed in developing policy regardless of whether they agree with the result. It would appear from this that parliaments should be equally able to reach bi-partisan agreement on a process.
You can read the IPA’s report here and the Per Capita’s report here.
Evidence-based policy making is a phrase everyone likes to use with no agreed standard of what it actually is. If we can have parties agree some basic standards in the policy process, then we are one step closer to being able to make more widely trusted decisions at all levels of government.
You can read the reports and media articles from the 2018 project here.
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City of Sydney, Planning for 2050
Strategic long-term thinking is a difficult task for any government. It requires forecasting trade-offs that the community is willing to accept to make room for a vision of a future city. newDemocracy has just completed a project with the City of Sydney, that addresses this challenge by giving a group of everyday citizens selected via Civic Lottery the authority to make recommendations on what the City should prioritise in it's 2050 Strategic Plan.
In the same way that the City's Sustainable Sydney 2030 goals have shaped the city in recent years, participants were looking for transformative and innovative ideas when answering the question:
What concepts should be implemented in Sydney by 2050?
We've designed a process that draws on elements seen in the The City of Madrid's Observatorio, taking ideas submitted by the broader public and giving citizens the time and resources to distil this down to a shortlist of concepts that they can develop and improve with access to expert advice.
All cities experience that there is a significant gap between this idealistic aspiration and the practical reality: lots of people are left feeling unheard and aggrieved. While large numbers of people engage, all governments suffer from the fact that they tend to talk to the converted and those with an active interest: those turning up to events and engaging online are largely cheerleaders or those hoping to secure a direct benefit, while those who don’t feel heard simply stop trying.
The jury has just completed their work, you can read their final recommendation report here. It is worth noting this is 100% the work of randomly-selected citizens (two of whom work in design helps with the look!) No consultants, council staff or newDemocracy "shaped" the report.
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The Sydney 2050 Citizens' Jury has just wrapped-up.
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Byron Shire Council and 'The Byron Model'
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Earlier in the year, newDemocracy worked with the Byron Shire Council to develop 'The Byron Model'. The model was jointly developed by a citizens' jury, key stakeholders and community groups, and councillors, with the aim to let the positives Council experienced become the norm, not the exception. These groups were given the topic:
How do we want to make democratic decisions in Byron Shire Council that can be widely supported?
Byron has a reputation for highly engaged community groups which can, at times, make it difficult to establish community-wide perspectives and can lead to public discourse that is highly fractious. Making trusted public decisions is arguably harder in Byron than in almost any other council across Australia.
This meant we needed to deliver a process that combined citizens, stakeholders and councillors to land on a set of recommendations that the whole of the community could stand behind.
These recommendations were recently passed by Council in their commitment to a 2-year trial of the outcomes. The first demonstration of this trial is taking place with the recruitment phase of a standing Citizens' Lottery for use on all kinds of community engagement and decision making, helping Council hear from a diverse range of voices. You can read more here.
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Research and Development Notes
We've continued our steady production of R&D Notes on citizen deliberation and how to use it. You can read all of our notes here on our website, but we've listed some note-able recent publications here:
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Principles of Community Participation in collaboration with Deloitte, we have come together to share eight principles learned from inviting community to participate in the policy-making process. This collaboration is the first in a series that focuses on practical learnings from Deloitte and newDemocracy's combined experience in applied cases.
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How Should Citizens’ Jury Decisions be Made? The Role of Voting (Lyn Carson & David Schecter) How should deliberative mini-publics take decisions, and when is voting appropriate for that purpose?
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Random Seating in Parliaments (Alessandro Saia & Lyn Carson) Is it possible to create a seating arrangement that would reduce the destructive or negative behaviours which cause voters to disengage and that are of limited productive value in helping parliaments make trusted decisions for the community?
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Why do Politicians Love or Hate the Idea of Citizens' Juries (Lyn Carson and David Schecter) What are politicians’ common concerns and objections to random selection of citizens for citizens’ juries or citizens’ assemblies, and how can they be addressed?
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