The A, B & C of Democracy: Or Cats in the Sack

(Paperback)

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A handbook for building a better democracy. This is a learner's guide to a better democracy. Sounds ambitious It is. The catalyst for publishing this book is obvious. There's no need to regurgitate the public's disaffection with politics. Mired in the tawdry mechanics of political campaigning, and incapable of climbing out of cyclical electioneering contests, representative democracies are stuck in a rut. As Dawn Nakagawa, Vice President of the Berggruen Institute, writes, 'Democratic reform is hard. We are very attached to our constitutions and institutions, even to the point of romanticising it all.' This handbook is an introduction to minipublics - otherwise known as citizens' juries or assemblies - interspersed with a few travel anecdotes to share the momentum behind the basic methodology of deliberative democracy. As the world accelerates into its digital future - with new modes of working, connecting and living - our parliaments remain relics from a primordial, ideological and adversarial age. Meanwhile urgent political challenges are stumbling to half-solutions in slow-motion. Collaboration amongst us humans in the Anthropocene is no longer just a nice-to-have.

Author Bio

Luca Belgiorno-Nettis is the Managing Director of Transfield Holdings, and Prisma Investment - a private family office. In 2004 he founded The newDemocracy Foundation, a non-for-profit research organisation focused on political reform. In 2009 he was awarded an AM for his work in arts and the community generally, and in 2014 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Western Sydney University. Kyle Redman is the Research and Design Program Manager at the newDemocracy Foundation. He is an internationally recognised expert on minipublics. His research into deliberative democracy and real-world experimentation seeks to challenge how we 'do democracy'.