James Burke: I took part in a broadbased survey on political engagement in the UK last year organized by PowerTruth commission. After numerous public consultations and much deliberation and refinement of results, the final report is available. We’re hosting the pdf from our server as their’s is pretty slow right now.

Some excerpts from report

“…..
Analysis of the Problem of Disengagement – The Myth of Apathy

Three fundamental characteristics of political disengagement
in Britain have been particularly influential in Power’s thinking about
the causes of the problem.

• Contrary to much of the public debate around political
disengagement, the British public are not apathetic. There is
now a great deal of research evidence to show that very large
numbers of citizens are engaged in community and charity
work outside of politics. There is also clear evidence that
involvement in pressure politics – such as signing petitions,
supporting consumer boycotts, joining campaign groups
– has been growing signifi cantly for many years. In addition,
research shows that interest in ‘political issues’ is high. The
area of decline is in formal politics: turnout for general
elections has declined very signifi cantly since 1997; turnout for
other elections has remained stubbornly low for years; party
membership and allegiance has declined very severely over the
last thirty years; elected representatives are held in very low
esteem and widely distrusted.
• Power’s own research and experience over the last eighteen
months has established that the level of alienation felt towards
politicians, the main political parties and the key institutions
of the political system is extremely high and widespread.
• The problem of disengagement from formal democracy is not
unique to Britain. Nearly all of the established democracies are
suffering from similar problems.

Red Herrings
Based on these three characteristics and its own research, Power
placed in doubt some of the analyses it has heard which claim to
explain the rise of disengagement.

Disengagement is NOT caused by:
• an apathetic and uninterested public with a weak sense of civic duty;
• a widespread economic and political contentment;
• the supposedly low calibre and probity of politicians;
• the lack of competitive elections (this may have a minor
impact on election turnout but it needs to be set in the wider context of an electoral
system which is widely perceived to lead to unequal and wasted votes);
• an overly negative news media;
• lack of time on the part of citizens.

The Reality, Power concluded that the following
explanations stood up in the face of the evidence:
• citizens do not feel that the processes of formal democracy
offer them enough influence over political decisions – this
includes party members who feel they have no say in policy-
making and are increasingly disaffected;
• the main political parties are widely perceived to be too similar
and lacking in principle;
• the electoral system is widely perceived as leading to unequal
and wasted votes;
• political parties and elections require citizens to commit to too
broad a range of policies;
• many people feel they lack information or knowledge about
formal politics;
• voting procedures are regarded by some as inconvenient and
unattractive.
…..”
The document goes on to further analyze reasons for apathy and possible solutions.

Prologue
I would appreciate it, if some designers and others started working on mash-ups of political design as we need a lot of creativity and hard work in this area. It’s not that the politicians are not trying. It’s just that we have to redesign it for them, (….and with them..although at a distance). A few years ago before blogging reached me, i redesigned a few dutch tax forms to suit my own needs, as an act of frustration and wishful thinking. I wanted to see where my tax payments had been going, and imagining if were to place myself in the position of having some choice in deciding where the total tax collections of the country go…..take a look here. It’s a just a random vision on a tracked and aggregated future, raising a few questions????????

additional links:
1) critique of report in openDemocracy and discussion here
2) article on power document in wikinews
post by james

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