Democracy in Guernsey

We like to think that we live in a democratic society.
 
We know that we don’t want to be too involved in the running of that society so we have a system whereby we get to elect people to do this for us. People we can trust to act responsibly on our behalf; act as a proxy for us.
 
Sadly, this is all a fiction.
 
It’s been a fiction ever since the first day when one of our elected representatives decided to think for themselves. 

Instead of acting on the will of the people, our representatives now trot out the line that they’ve got to be trusted to follow their conscience or best judgement or whatever. If we’ve enough trust to elect them then we should extend that trust to allow them to do what they want, secure in the knowledge that they will always try to act in what they think are our best interests.
 
This isn’t democracy.
 
It’s actually an abdication of our responsibilities rather than the delegation it was intended to be. We have allowed this situation to develop and it is now haunting us.
 
It is haunting us every time our representatives act on something which they’ve never consulted us about, or decide to change their minds from what they told us they would do in the light of new information or maybe just because they don’t want some bad press for making a difficult decision.
 
It doesn’t have to be that way.
 
I don’t know exactly how many people are entitled to vote in Guernsey elections but let’s say it’s 40,000.
 
The party line is that this number is too unwieldy to consult about every single policy the States debate and that is why we have Deputies.
 
That may be true about the small stuff but what about the big decisions?
 
Take the recent vote on population control.
 
Talk to anyone living in Guernsey and most will tell you that it’s too crowded. We simply have too many people living here for the available space if we’re to retain Guernsey as it is. People are interested in controlling our population and it’s right that the States come up with some ideas of what to do.
 
But for such a big decision with such huge ongoing ramifications, shouldn’t there have been some form of public consultation? No, forget consultation. Each deputy should have stood before their electors and stated how they intended to vote and why and then asked whether this represented the views of the people who had elected them because this is something which wasn’t envisaged when you guys elected me in the first place.
 
Too difficult?
 
The problem is that it might create a precedent. Start involving the people too much in real decision making and they might get a taste for it. Much easier to have a beauty contest every four years and then ignore them for the rest of the time.
 
Could real democracy work in Guernsey?
 
Could we give each and every one of us the same voting rights as a Deputy? Let’s try and imagine what it would be like.
 
Every month I get access to the same information as my Deputy prior to the States monthly assembly. I then get access to the debate which is broadcast live but also available on demand via my computer and the States website.
 
At this stage nobody has voted for anything but everything has been said.
 
We then have a week’s period of reflection during which time we have the ability to vote for or against, just as each Deputy might. 

We also have the right to allow our deputy to make their own decision and the right not to participate at all, which amounts to the same thing.
 
If over 50% of the eligible voting population decide in a particular direction then that is the vote and that is the decision to  be ratified by the States. Anything less and we let the deputies decide but in accordance with the wishes of their electorate if their area vote is over 50% or very substantial.
 
Would I be prepared to wade through the Billet each and every month?
 
At the moment, the majority of the voting population are somewhat apathetic because they know that their individual decision has very little weight. I can’t even vote for the deputies I trust unless they happen to be standing in my district.
 
But what if we knew our voices actually carried some real power?