✅ NOTE: Checked documents are covered in Basic Resources
· OECD Innovative Public Participation
o “The OECD invites public authorities at all levels of government to involve everyday citizens in solving public problems through more engaging and representative forms of participation, such as deliberative processes. The “deliberative wave” has been expanding, covering 34 countries, with 96% of the cases situated within OECD Members. By yielding public judgements rather than public opinion, deliberative processes can lead to better policy outcomes. When done effectively, they can enable policy makers to take hard decisions on challenging and contentious problems whilst enhancing trust.”
o The largest single determinant of trust in Canada is whether citizens feel heard. Only four in ten Canadians (40%) believe that the political system allows people like them to have a say in what government does. (OECD)
· Citizens assemblies: Definition and standards, website from Poland ✅
o Citizens’ assemblies: Pioneered in B.C. 20 years ago, they’re a growing pro‑democracy tool: article on The Conversation website
o Citizens assemblies in Ireland (website)
o The Irish Citizens Assembly (How to Save Democracy, audio, 64 min.) ✅
Digital Tools
· Taiwan’s Transformation (audio, 54 min.)
· Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s cyber ambassador (2:27 min.)
· vTaiwan: Rethinking Democracy (Gov. Taiwan website)
· The Computational Democracy Project designs, engineers and maintains Polis, an open source, real-time system for gathering, analyzing and understanding what large groups of people think in their own words, enabled by advanced statistics and machine learning.
o “Polis is a platform for a conversation, in which participants submit short text statements, or comments, (<140 characters) which are then sent out semi-randomly to other participants to vote on by clicking agree, disagree or pass. Polis allows conversation owners to create conversations which can seamlessly engage (currently) up to hundreds of thousands or (conceivably) millions of participants.”
o Decidim combines digital tools with in person meetings. It provides an open-source digital platform for citizen participation in creating and refining legislation. Meant to handle text-heavy, multi-month workflows—such as collaborative document drafting, participatory budgeting, amendment voting, and tracking project schedules. Polis can be used within the context of this process to map consensus.
Nunavut and NWT
· What is Consensus Government? (NWT) Overview, one page ✅
· NWT Legislative Assembly (various media) Includes:
o Educational videos (How a Bill Becomes Law 4 min. and Three Branches of Government 3 min.)
o Comprehensive information package on the NWT government (24 pp)
o Audio-visual tour of the NWT Legislature (30 min.)
· No political Parties: How Nunavut’s Consensus Government works (video, CBC, 1:56 min.) ✅
· Consensus-style government in Nunavut
o “Nunavut and the Northwest Territories are the only two Canadian jurisdictions that pursue a consensus approach to government. This approach has often been described as a fusion of Westminster-style structures and aboriginal views of deliberation and decision-making.”
o Consensus Government in NWT, Tim Mercer. History, Distinctive Features, civility & decorum (see p.6)
· Democracy Next (DemNext.org) DemocracyNext is a research & action institute focused on broadening who has power and improving collective decision making with sortition, deliberation, and rotation. “We believe in a more just, joyful, and collaborative future, where everyone has meaningful power to shape their societies.”
· A Citizen Future, Jon Alexander, with video clip Time to Citizen (2:47 min.) ✅
· CBC Ideas, Can Abolishing Political Parties Topple Fascism? (podcast)
· Global Democracy & Justice Lecture Series (audio)
· TED talk The Rising Cost of Dissent in America Miles Taylor (YouTube)
· Big Tech is Stifling Democracy Alexis Crews (YouTube)
· Politics Without Politicians, Helene Landemore (book available on Libby)