For more information on Digital Democracy watch the video report.
A week has passed since the launch of the Digital Democracy Commission’s ‘Open Up!’ report.
The one recommendation from the report that seems to divide opinion more than any other is the recommendation regarding online voting. Many people are still worried about internet security and an increase in voter fraud, while I share these concerns I definitely think the time has come for some wide scale trials to see if these concerns are justified.
The aims of making it easier to find out what is going on in Parliament and facilitating online participation in parliamentary debates are a great step in the right direction, but the real silver bullet of democratic participation will be the report’s recommendations on improving political education. Making sure people know what MPs and Parliament do should be the least that is required of a functioning democracy.
The report is quite radical in a sense. Opening up our traditional democracy and methods of representation to the digital age is a worthy goal, but I think far more comprehensive and hollistic reform is needed for a truly Digital Democracy to take hold.
Long gone is the notion that young people aren’t interested in politics, and instead politicians are having to come to terms with the fact that they aren’t blameless in the downward spiral of traditional political engagement.
Polls continually show that young people want significantly different things than other age groups. For example, under 25s are far more likely to support the Green Party, and far less likely to support UKIP than the over 60s.
If younger people don’t vote they won’t get what they want.
Photo credit: James Galley
This article was edited slightly when I moved it to my new website in April 2016