Rutger Bregman’s Humankind explores and debunks the myth that human nature is nasty by default. He acknowledges that it can be and in certain circumstances this can have survival value. But in the majority of circumstances and situations, humans’ default responses are kindness, compassion and being helpful. In relation to … Read More
The Australian Democracy Network, whose aim is to extract undue, excessive corporate influence from our political system, has launched a campaign to grow toward achieving that. More details about the campaign and the petition can be found on the #OurDemocracy website. It is fascinating how the our democracy meme is … Read More
Peter Tait Looking at the issues confronting us at present: climate action, jobseeker rate, NDIS, infrastructure development, urban planning, asylum seekers and immigration, defence budgets, and many others, how might community members work with their elected representatives to look at managing them? This isn’t actually new; France tried it with … Read More
Avoiding circus elections, cutting out the dysfunction and corruption of the western liberal election process. Institute a sensible hiring process for representatives in our parliament, or for making the really complex decisions that bedevil our society. Idealistic and entirely possible. Adam Cronkright is coordinator of ‘of by for‘ and co-founder … Read More
Peter Tait (this 13 January version is an update of the original post of January 6th 2021) Over the past few weeks, I have found myself explaining what CAPaD is trying to do. People are interested in a new way of thinking about doing politics. These conversations have led me … Read More
Peter Tait My reflections rather than a book review. Jess Scully discusses the hope-giving developments she has found around the world that suggest we can build a well society on a well planet if we apply what we know. Just been reading Jess Scully, Glimpses of Utopia #GlimpsesOfUtopia. There is … Read More
Listening to Cathy goes to Canberra, Conversations with Richard Fidler, ABC Radio. Talking abut her new book. Some take homes: Their aim was to make the seat marginal; make it competitive. Start with the local member. Safe seats don’t get attention. Listen to the young people. What do they know? … Read More
My concern here leads me to sound a note of caution: the language is very important here. Are people dissatisfied with that system of politics that we call democracy or are they really dissatisfied with government or with the failure of government to protect and provide for their needs? Or … Read More
Peter W Tait, 2020 Some background theory for explaining CAPaD’s objective in focusing on representation in participatory democratic theory. From Urbinati N, Warren ME. The concept of representation in contemporary democratic theory. Annual Review of Political Science. 2008;11:387-412 How do we know if representation is legitimate? This depends on the … Read More
Dr Peter Tait, Secretary for the Canberra Alliance for Participatory Democracy The election is happening. Candidates have all been declared, and voting starts this week. It looks to be a close election. Candidates would want to use all possible ways to attract voters. The Alliance invites all candidates to put … Read More