Main content

22/08/2009

In the wake of voters' anger with their elected representatives over expenses, Ben Wright explores the growth of direct democracy and asks if it can ever work on a large scale.

Ben Wright asks if public anger over MPs' expenses could pave the way for a change to politics in Britain. He looks at new ways of connecting voters and politicians, from wiki-bills to twitter.

The programme also explores the growth of direct democracy, including referendums and a scheme that gives voters power over budgets. We hear from Prof James Fishkin, a pioneer of Deliberative Democracy, a new method inspired by ancient Athenian models. We also hear from YouGov's Peter Kellner, a critic of referendum politics, and the former health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, a fan of Citizen Juries.

Plus a discussion about how to revive representative democracy, with contributions from Conservative MP Douglas Carswell, Labour MP Kerry McCarthy and Austen Ivereigh from the grassroots organisation London Citizens.

Available now

30 minutes

Last on

Sat 22 Aug 2009 11:00

Broadcast

  • Sat 22 Aug 2009 11:00