[CivicAccess-discuss] uservoice ... the liberals

[Tracey P. Lauriault]

Thanks for bringing that up Hugh!

I agree with you and also worry about the trend toward technologically
mediated direct democracy.  I find it a worrisome trend, that promotes
exclusivity and narrowness - very culturally libertarian and naive.  It is
like putting a fundamental human rights issue on a ballot as was done in the
US and as we saw with Proposition 8.  A majority is not always right.

Have you read any of the comments to globe articles lately?  I try to pick
an article a day and read the comments - the degree of shallowness is
astounding. I does give one a pulse on who is online and who responds and
what people actually think. If it is the same crowd that votes on these
direct democracy tools we are in more democratic trouble than ever!  It is a
small subset of the population and it would be really interesting to see the
demographics.

For instance we have seen technology related campaigns online be very
successful - what is their demographic?  Whose interests and values do they
represent? We have not seen the same success and uptake on social policy
campaigns - what is their demographic? Who cares about those interests and
values? Who will represent the latter group's interests online?

How do we create dialogue?

I am really perplexed - on the one side these tools do nibble at some of
what we want, and concurrently if we solely go in that direction - well!
Doing work on the hill is painfully slow and requires some very special
skills and lots resources.  What is the happy medium?  How do we create a
rapprochement?

I would really love to see how we can technological mediate meaningful
dialogue that leads to social and political transformation, and not just the
fulfillment of superficial desires on narrow issues.

Sorry for going on, but this has been on my mind lately and I am really glad
you brought it up!

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 10:40 AM, Hugh McGuire <hugh at hughmcguire.net> wrote:

> looks like it is from the liberals, yes.
> (as an aside, these initiatives always demonstrate to me how incompatible
> direct democracy is to good policy making ...maybe I'm just saying that
> because just about the *only* policy decision the tories have made that i
> support 100% was plugging the income trust tax loophole).
>
>
>
>
>
> On Apr 21, 2009, at 10:05 AM, Tracey P. Lauriault wrote:
>
> Is this the liberal party creating this?
>
> On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 7:48 AM, Hugh McGuire <hugh at hughmcguire.net>wrote:
>
>> http://voice.liberal.ca/pages/on_probation
>>
>> "We deserve transparency and accountability from our government so
>> that we can address this economic crisis responsibly and plan for our
>> recovery. Canadians want the facts. You can help us keep the
>> government on track by asking the Prime Minister a question."
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Tracey P. Lauriault
> 613-234-2805
> https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault
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-- 
Tracey P. Lauriault
613-234-2805
https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault
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