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Suppose an island appears in the Pacific Ocean. An island that has never existed before. Many people of the world decide to settle it, until it has a similar population and settlement pattern to New Zealand. We can guess that the islanders would want their own government. They would want it to be democratic. And…
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What a fitting cover! The title Against Elections: The Case for Democracy (2013) may sound like a contradiction to most people. It shouldn’t be. In the Western world, we have an ingrained view that “democracy = elections”. But David Van Reybrouck, a Belgian historian and author, makes a provocative but strong case in this book…
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Conservatism is a philosophy of sex and death That’s an actual quote from Danny Kruger’s book Covenant: The New Politics of Home, Neighbourhood and Nation (2023) and it makes sense in context. I read this book because I think it’s healthy to sometimes read from different perspectives to your own. Kruger wrote it to argue…
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Last September, Britain’s embattled centre-left government announced they would introduce a compulsory digital ID. Although polls in the last few years had found public opinion more open to a government ID system, the initial public reaction was far more divided. Opposition surged and a petition against the proposal soon drew millions of signatures in just…
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If you fancy a career in politics, watch Zack Polanski and study how he speaks: Who would’ve thought of it, a politician who actually answers the question! Leaders are often overrated in politics. John Bartle and Ivor Crewe once calculated that Tony Blair, an undeniably charismatic leader, improved his party’s vote share by less than…
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A few weekends ago, I went on a walking tour of central with Bella Roberts from Antiparty, a group dedicated to envisioning democracy without the party system of today – something I have independently concluded myself. They are particularly interested in sortition, deliberative democracy and giving power to local communities. As they put it: We…
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A protest against the killing of Renee Good last Wednesday, only hours after it happened. The 2010s saw more people take part in political protests than any decade before. The 2020s are shaping up to be bigger still — on the day I write this, the US is facing another big wave of protests over…
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When confronted with the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, John F. Kennedy had on his mind a book that he had recently read. It was The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman’s newly-published and now-classic account of how the European powers blundered into the First World War. Kennedy was impressed by the book and encouraged many…
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Just over a month ago, I helped out at a people’s assembly in Brixton, a neighbourhood of the inner south London at the end of an Underground line, to act as the facilitator of a group discussion. I have been late posting on this, as this post stalled as I struggled to figure out several…
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Zohran Mamdani (left) out campaigning in Flushing last June. The New York City mayoral election has drawn more attention than usual this year, thanks to the initially surprising rise and eventual victory last night of the radical left candidate Zohran Mamdani. At a time when American democracy is declining at an alarming speed thanks to…
Posts
- What would an ideal constitution look like?
- Against Elections by David Van Reybrouck, review and analysis
- Conservatism in crisis: Covenant by Danny Kruger, review and analysis
- Labour to try citizens’ assembly
- Learning from Zack Polanski
- A Democracy Walk with Antiparty
- How could protests be more effective?
- History for Tomorrow by Roman Krznaric, review and analysis
- My experience at a people’s assembly in Brixton
- Learning from Zohran Mamdani’s victory
- A warning from Europe’s history: To Hell and Back by Ian Kershaw, review and analysis
- How an assembly-based political party could work
- Power to the People by Danny Sriskandarajah, review and analysis
- Revolution is coming — the Community Assembly Project
- My visit to the Humanity Project national gathering
- Why we need to abolish political parties, and how to do it
- Your Party, Grasping at the Enormity of the Moment by Roger Hallam, review and analysis
- A cheap citizens’ assembly in Penzance
- Divided by Shoes — The Power of Us by Van Bavel & Packer, review and analysis
- Learning from the Jeremy Corbyn movement
- What if politics were a tennis club?
- Assemble’s House of the People — The Result
- What is Right with People? Rationality by Steven Pinker, review and analysis
- What is Assemble’s House of the People?
- Independents in power — Flatpack Democracy 2.0 by Peter Macfadyen, review and analysis
- Parallel thinking — Failed State by Sam Freedman, review and analysis
- Bookchin for beginners — Practicing Social Ecology by Eleanor Finley, review and analysis
- Could Serbia have the first assembly revolution?
- The Myth of the Strong Leader by Archie Brown, review and analysis
- All In: A Revolutionary Theory to Stop Climate Collapse, review and analysis
- The need to work together — Movement Ecology’s study of participatory democracy movements
- A movement is stirring — my experience at Rev21’s convention
- Another day in paradigms — Roger Hallam’s podcast, review and analysis (Part 2)
- How We Got Here: The Shortest History of Democracy by John Keane, review and analysis
- A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall — Roger Hallam’s podcast, review and analysis (Part 1)
- Is identity problematic? The Identity Trap by Yascha Mounk, review and analysis
- A people’s assembly in action!
- The origins of revolutions – The Quiet Before by Gal Beckerman, review and analysis
- Should assemblies contest elections?
- Rawls to the Rescue? Free and Equal by Daniel Chandler, review and analysis
- How to do a cheap citizens’ assembly
- A viable utopia? The Next Revolution by Murray Bookchin, review and analysis
- Learning from women’s suffrage
- Granny of parliaments — How Westminster Works… and Why It Doesn’t by Ian Dunt, review and analysis
- An astonishing response — promoting a people’s assembly in Salisbury
- When Assemble disrupted the House of Lords
- Roger Hallam: Assemblies can go viral
- An independent revolution — Flatpack Democracy by Peter Macfadyen, review and analysis
- Why do protest movements fail? If We Burn by Vincent Bevins, review and analysis
- Why You Should Start a People’s Assembly
- Why We Need Assembly Democracy
- What are People’s Assemblies?
Assembly Project 