Real Democracy NZ

For Real Democracy New Zealand, the Purple Revolution, click here.

7 Essentials of Democracy

This YouTube video from New Zealand, "Direct Democracy: 7 Essential Principles for Resurrecting Western Democracy", identifies some democratic principles, which I've paraphrased here:

1. No citizen should live in fear of another citizen
2. Truth and freedom should not be sacrificed for safety
3. People should be in control of the most important things in their lives
4. Equality should not triumph over liberty
5. Liberty exists to do what is just and good
6. Central government should relinquish things that can be done locally
7. Citizens should have equal democratic power

I understand that these principles may be derived from the work of Montesque and Chesterton

New Zealand Electoral Reform

New Zealand has shown how to choose a new electoral system in a more democratic manner. In 1992 the people of New Zealand were asked (a) if they want a change then (b) which of four electoral systems they would prefer! The systems considered were: Mixed Member Proportional, Supplementary Member, Single Transferable Vote, or Preferential Voting. This resulted in 70.3% voting for Mixed Member Proportional according to this report.

In one way the ConDem (and Labour manifesto) proposal to hold a referendum on the electoral system is a step forward because the right of a people to decide on matters of constitution is implicitly acknowledged. But the sophistication of the ConDem referendum plans (AV or bust) is far removed from the New Zealand process.

Thanks to INIREF for their contribution to this post.