Trust an engaged public

In 2004, the government of the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) convened a Citizens' Assembly to examine their electoral system. Their first-past-the-post system rarely translates the popular vote proportionally into legislative seats.

The elected members of the provincial legislature were reluctant to reform the system because their political parties benefitted by the status quo. Experts alone would not convince a cynical public to change. But a group of engaged and unaligned citizens taking ownership of the problem probably could.

The assembly recommended introducing a system called Single Transferable Vote (STV) (similar to Tasmania's Hare-Clark system). The assembly even designed a particular variant of STV to meet the particular needs of BC.

At a January reunion, they released the following statement:

We were 160 ordinary citizens, drawn randomly from the voters list. We came from every part of BC, from every walk of life, men and women, young and young at heart. We spent 11 months working together. We learned about electoral systems and BC's electoral history, and most importantly, we heard from the people of British Columbia. We weren't activists, or reformers, or even especially interested in politics when we started - but we came to believe ... wholeheartedly that STV is best for BC. Not just urban BC, or rural BC, or left or right - BC-STV is best for all of BC.

When the citizens of BC vote in a provincial election coming up on May 12, they will also vote on a referendum to switch to STV. The people of BC should trust the recommendations of their Citizens' Assembly.
Citizens could be very handy in lending the government some legitimacy during these troubled times. A randomly-selected, facilitated group of citizens can work with experts and stakeholders to create solutions that would find widespread support. For example, perhaps there was a better way to stimulate the economy than emptying the Treasury coffers into public bank accounts.

This sort of public engagement would compliment the advice and support given to our bureaucrats and elected representatives and put them in confident rather than contested decision-making situations.

Putting trust in an engaged microcosm of the public might even be reciprocated by increased public trust in our political system and its actors.