They're not voting because...
- Now that the ball is over .... You ...
Now that the ball is over .... You did not vote. Not apathetic about politics and people. What now? Want to help improve the way our democracy works, the way we govern ourselves? See http://www.iniref.org/
The Independent Newspaper and others have started a post-election campaign for democracy reform which aims only to improve the electoral system. One suggestion is to divide out MP seats among the parties according to the proportion of votes received by each -- proportional representation. Other suggested methods allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference, with single or multiple seat constituencies.
Even if one of these reforms comes through, changing the electoral system will not alter the fact that we cannot decide on things which bother us, "public issues", but can only give away our vote to a candidate or party. They are then (if elected to power of government) supposed to take over responsibility for all questions and problems which may crop during the life of the parliament, until the next election in five or so years. We cannot even veto bad laws!
There are better ways to run our public affairs. One promising, and well tried group of proposals is to add in, or revive, methods of direct democracy. Some examples are citizens' initiative (often a law proposal) and binding referendum to veto an unwanted law or government proposal.
More information about about this "stronger" democracy may be found at the web site http://www.iniref.org/
If you have questions just write to the campaign INFO@INIREF.ORG
You can discuss by joining Democr@cy Forum via http://www.iniref.org/learn.html#forum
written 18th May 2005
