If democracy means self-government, it is doubtful whether Britain and other western countries should be called full democracies.
A critical democratic dimension, the direct involvement of citizens in government, has gone almost entirely neglected.
We have three moderate, specific proposals for change:
- Voter juries: the piloting, at national and local level, of voter juries to assess the pros and cons of contested policy proposals. They would be established on a similar basis to judicial juries, but without formal constitutional authority.
- Voter vetoes: the introduction of voter vetoes, giving citizens at national and local level the right to call consultative referenda on strongly contested legislation or council decisions. At national level one million citizens would need to sign a petition for a referendum to take place.
- Voter feedback: local experiments to engage people in deliberation on local issues of controversy using the combined television and telephone networks being built by cable companies in conurbations, in collaboration with local authorities and other local institutions.
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