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
This post was originally printed in Intouch, the PHAA Blog and is printed here with PHAA’s permission. Two things happened in late July that makes me worry for the future of the public’s health in Australia. First, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that the National Covid-19 Coordination Commission (NCCC) was … Read More
More curly questions about democracy come in from people who have heard of my passion for fixing government; here is another and the response made. I have no doubt that you and others have had to deal with this question many times in the past. And it is a question that … Read More