socialgandhi

The Deputy PM today invited us all to take a trip with him in the heady worlds of e-democracy and political crowdsourcing with the launch of the Your Freedom website.  Not only can we now tell Nick about what unnecessary laws we want to see repealed, he also promises, nay guarantees “that every comment, suggestion and rating will be read.” Good luck!

Your Freedom offers three broad categories restoring civil liberties, repealing unnecessary laws and cutting business and third sector regulations. Where you see a button that reads “Submit an idea”, you can click it, write your suggestion (after registering) and then wait for others to rate or comment on it.

In Clegg’s introductory video he says: “For too long new laws have taken away your freedom, interfered in everyday life and made it difficult for businesses to get on.” 

As the Guardian’s Simon Jeffery blogged today “Whenever anything like this launches it is easy to mock or be the first to dismissively declare it has backfired (which may not happen till later). Whether it does or not depends on if the exercise continues and how – or if – the government chooses to act on the suggestions. Clegg claims in the video above that it “is a totally new way of making policy”?

“The tricky thing with online consultation is the listening – not just whether you do, but who you are listening to. In a different context, Charlie Beckett, director of the Polis centre at the LSE, some months ago said about political crowdsourcing and e-democracy:

“I’m a big e-democracy person, I’d argue for it all round but you have to be careful about what are the algorithms of democracy. How do you weight people? Who is more important? 20,000 metrosexuals who rush onto Twitter to complain about something? How do you weight what they said against people who aren’t so technologically literate. How do you give them an equal voice? When you have a ballot box you have all got the same vote, but when you have e-democracy the articulate become even more empowered”.

 The coalition’s online exercises – this, and the one asking public sector workers where the cuts should come – are both constructed along similar principles: give us ideas, we might use them. One on the Clegg site asking why passports can’t be sent by Royal Mail special delivery looks to be very sensible. Can the same really be really said for stopping education for the poor?

Any thoughts, on the site or the suggestions, are welcome below.

In the meantime, enjoy the video and visit the site www.yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk