Post in I am a citizen not a consumer

Mick

-----Original Message-----
From: <email obscured> [mailto:consult@groups.dowire.org] On
Behalf Of Pete Thomson
Sent: 28 July 2008 09:54
To: <email obscured>
Subject: Re: [Consult] I am a citizen not a consumer


I don't think it would work, because it misses the fundamental purpose
of government - to decide on issues when there is no consensus.

If instead of the friendly example about changes in the local park, you
think about extending an airport, or introducing congestion charging,
it's more obvious that a broad consensus may never happen. So a system
that requires a broad consensus before taking any action is a recipe for
inertia, a licence to filibuster.

Because governments have to take some decisions that some people
disagree with, they need to aggregate assent over multiple decisions to
maintain legitimacy. They'll obviously want to include some decisions
that would command broad consensus, to gain some degree of assent from
everyone, so they won't want to let go even of those decisions that
could be handled by a consensus mechanism.

My view would be falsified if it were demonstrated that by some means
(irrespective of technology) mass consensus can actually be achieved,
even on issues that initially appear deeply divisive, within a useful
timescale. I'm not aware of any such evidence. NB this does have to be
mass consensus, not just consensus within a small select group like a
citizens' jury.

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