Citizenship: the power and tools to influence policy?
In this video Olly Benson, a trustee of the Citizenship Foundation, argues the importance of understanding the rules - both written and unwritten - of how society works.
“Actually having the power and the tools to influence policy and understand how you can do that … citizenship education’s all about giving people that power and those tools.”
Please note: the views expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the Citizenship Foundation.
It seems to me that citizens of Switzerland have a much greater power to influence both local and national policy than we have in the UK; the right to petition for a veto referendum means that politicians find it much more difficult to impose laws that are opposed by the majority: if they try, they risk the possibility that an individual will successfully petition for a referendum on the law at issue. The government is bound by the result of the referendum. I shall not take seriously our politicians talk of democratic reform whilst they so studiously avoid Swiss style direct democracy. Parliamentary democracy, especially in the form of whipped parties, is a very inadequate form of democracy as more and more voters are coming to realise.
Comment by ADRIAN — 6 December, 2009 @ 11:58 pm