Political Essay

The Future of Democracy in New Zealand.

 

Democracy in New Zealand has been a vigorous plant. Once women had been given the vote, the Maori seats had been established, and anomalies like the so-called ”Country Quota” had been abolished, it only took the introduction of MMP to move us further down the track.

 

There are still ways in which our democracy can be made more democratic.

 

One of the most glaring to my mind is the whole area of equality.

 

Democratic systems should be “bottom-up” rather than ”top-down”.  In other words, the power, the ideas, the initiative, should flow up from the population to the leaders, rather than down from some single authority at the top.

 

So the symbol of that flow should be an egalitarian one, not the autocratic one we have at present: the Monarchy.  Monarchy is at odds with egalitarian legislation like the Human Rights Act (and the UN Declaration).

 

A change to a Republic is essential to move us to a more perfect democracy.

 

Secondly we need to replace the present confrontational decision making process, of debate and voting, by a consensual process, of discussion and inclusion.

 

Decision-making by consensus works quite effectively in some statutory bodies by regulation (eg Ethics Committees, Restorative Justice Conferences) and is an important part of the legislative process under MMP.

 

Many activities undertaken in any community work best if they include everyone. Researchers have long known that targeted assistance does not work as well as universal benefits. Insurance works best if everyone is insured. Vaccination works best if everyone is vaccinated.

 

I believe that for democracy to work better, education is the same. Education does not just rely on the relationship between the teacher and the student, although that is important.

 

Children are educated, especially in emotional, relationship and social education, by the way they interact with their fellow-pupils. So I believe that the best education can only be obtained in comprehensive schools, that is, in schools where everyone in the community attends together and learns together.

 

Ideally I believe that private schools should be abolished, and home schooling should not be allowed; first to go must be sectarian and class-based (i.e. fee-paying) schools.

 

Parents who send their children to a private school, or who home-school them, are depriving their children of the educational effects of children from other backgrounds, and are depriving the other children of the effects of rubbing shoulders with their own kids.

 

Thirdly we need to make our franchise truly universal by including all citizens: having the right to vote from birth.

 

No party in power is at present forced to take families into its policies, because children do not have a vote. Only when children are entitled to a vote (exercised of course by their guardians until they are old enough to vote themselves, say around 12 years old), will governments be forced to legislate for the real prosperity of families with children. Only then will the democracy include all human beings in our society.

 

There are other changes which would also make our system more democratic, but these will do for a start!