Sustainability England Democracy

There are classic psychology experiments that demonstrates why power corrupts. Confirmation bias, also called confirmatory bias or myside bias, is the tendency to search for, interpret, favour, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. It is a type of cognitive bias and a systematic error of inductive reasoning.

In other words, people will generally interpret the world around them in a manner which reinforces their view. When people in power do this it is inevitable that they will favour explanations and conditions that reinforce that very power.

Democracy aims to limit this by including the views of all citizens so that the resulting actions represent a variety of positions, with "the most popular" being the chosen outcome.

As globalisation concentrates power, particularly in unelected bodies such as bureaucrats, multinational corporations, media moguls & the "super rich" democracy inevitably suffers.

Sustainability England believe that decisions should be made by those most effected by those decisions not by unelected elites following the theory of subsidiarity, ironically a defining feature of the European Union!

At present the parliamentary party system thwarts the will of the majority. The party system means the electorate cannot vote for individual policies or politicians and ensures any government is unlikely to implement its manifesto pledges. A revised voting system and a national government with executive powers, along with more regular elections could address this. For further information see video Is Democracy Working? Time For National Government?

OBJECTIVES

To devolve democratic power to the most local level practically possible

To encourage democratic participation using traditional & technological methods

Political candidates should be funded from tax revenue and not from self interested donors

The parliamentary system should be reformed to ensure the will of the majority is observed and every vote counts

Reform of the unelected House of Lords

The enshrinement of free speech in law

Freedom of information

Reform the Monarchy and replace with an elected, democratic head of state.