E-democracy projects are springing up all over the UK. They range from online surgeries for councillors, to e-enabled citizens’ panels and local government information via text message.
The BBC has joined the throng with its own Action Network website, an open forum inviting people to start campaigns in their local communities.
Doing its bit for e-democracy is the Scottish parliament which has been running an e-petitioning system for a year now.
It has begun a very new type of political debate.
I think I’ll forward this to Congress. Should I hold my breath?
A third of all petitions are now submitted to the Scottish parliament electronically and the e-system has distinct advantages.
Rather than just sign their names to a cause they agree with, people are invited to join an interactive forum to discuss their views in more detail, offering insights, web links and background information on a particular topic or even express opposition to an idea.
Current e-petitions cover a whole range of issues, including the threat to rural schools, affordable housing, world poverty and the Scottish haulage industry.
Each one will go before the Public Petitions Committee, and what the government do with it, which department they send it to and which experts they consult, are published on the website, along with any eventual changes to actual legislation.
Michael McMahon, convener (chair) of the Public Petitions Committee, thinks its global reach and the fact that it creates a dialogue are the two main benefits of the e-petitioning system.
“It is a two-way process at all times and anyone in the world can contribute to our government,” he said.
It is not just citizens from other countries who are getting involved. An adapted version of the system is currently being adopted by Germany, which has one of the biggest parliaments in the EU.
Doesn’t Congress already have an e-mail system? The problem is that they fixed the number of Representatives at 435, which is now 1 per million people when it used to be 1 per thirty thousand.
AB CD is wrong, the current number of people per representative is currently an average of 639,000 persons as set by the 2000 Census.
Think about it – there are 435 Members of Congress, (plus separate representatives for Washington DC, Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands and American Samoa ) and roughly 300 million Americans. There’s no way you can get to a million people per Congressional district.
Yes, there are more people per Member of Congress than in 1800, but there are also a lot more staff as well. Most Congressional offices have 7- 9 people in Washington DC, and nearly the same number in District offices back at home.
Members are out there seeking ways to make you happy and have vote for them. They care more about what their constituents think than what a foreign leader or someone from outside the district says.
Just because they vote for something YOU don’t like doesn’t mean there weren’t plenty of others in your district that liked it.
By that argument we might as well have just one representative. The point is the representatives are more responsive with a smaller constituency. For a million people, that means there’s a certain core that a politician is free to ignore since they might never be noticed.