The dirty electoral funding deal: How to get something better
I talk to Leon Gettler about the way electoral funding is manipulated by the major parties to entrench their own power. Democracy is supposed to be a competition, not a rigged game, yet we see politicians making decisions that serve their own interests rather than the public good.I argue that it's absurd to have politicians determining the terms of political competition — they should have no more to do with that than they should with setting electoral boundaries. We need a new kind of institution—one that takes key decisions like electoral out of the hands of politicians and puts them in the hands of a jury of everyday Australians. I discuss the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, a model that has helped clean up gerrymandering in the U.S., and how a similar approach could work here.
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10:54
A role for juries in electoral democracy?
In this after-dinner talk to the Radix conference on Resilient Democracy at St George's House on Feb 20th, I lay out a different way of thinking about democracy — one that challenges the assumption that elections are the only legitimate form of representation. Democracies mix two approaches: representation by election and representation by sampling. But in modern politics, we’ve sidelined the latter, except in the judicial system.Elections don’t just select representatives; they shape the kind of people who rise to power. The system favours self-promotion, rewards spin, and turns politics into a competition for attention rather than a forum for governing. We assume elections will keep politicians accountable, but in practice, they reinforce a cycle where honesty is a liability and persuasion takes priority over substance.Representation by sampling works differently. When people are selected by lottery to deliberate on political issues, they tend to engage with one another in ways that cut through party lines and ideological divides. I explore examples of how this has worked, from ancient Athens to modern citizen assemblies, and outline a proposal: a standing Citizens’ Assembly to sit alongside existing institutions, providing an independent check on government.This isn’t about replacing elections, but about balancing them with another democratic principle—one we’ve neglected for too long.The Conference Website is here. The video of the talk can be found here.
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53:58
The people's house: building a new institution
In this discussion, Gene Tunny and I discuss my leading article in my Substack last week. There I agued that our political systems are built on representing people through elections whereas there’s another way to represent the people — by sampling. We can create bodies that are representative of the people because they’re chosen by lottery from the people.
And here’s the thing. The systems built on these two ways of representing the people are so different they can be thought of as two different strands of DNA in our democracy. And I want that other way to represent the people — as occurs in juries — to play a much larger role in our political system. But how to bring that about?
Well, it’s quite likely that Australia will have a hung parliament after the next election — that any government that forms will need the support of a growing cross-bench. So I want that cross-bench to demand as a condition of supporting one side or the other that it establish a citizen assembly.
And we need a standing citizen assembly, rather than temporary, subject-specific ones.
Why? For reasons discussed in the article — which is here.
Please join us in the discussion below.
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32:27
An interview from 2016 arguing for more vigorous rate cuts
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6:27
The proposed Hobart AFL Stadium
An interview with me on Victoria's 3AW Wide World of Sports
Australia