you know what I’ve heard people saying
that democracy is dead I’ve also heard
it in conversations this August at the
Alper forum in Tyrol being engaged with
one of the most dynamic festival of
ideas in Europe I naturally get a chance
to talk to students from all over Europe
and the world I remember two
conversations in particular one night
standing outside gas stove Yacouba
opposite the church in the graveyard
wherever in trading is buried not his
cat another quantum physics Nobel Prize
beer in hand students warming out from
late-night lectures and art seminars
I was talking to Adam a chemistry
student from Frankfurt and he was
arguing that democracy was dead because
corporate interests had taken over look
at the diesel scandal the massive car
industry got away with no ordinary
business would have let been let off the
hook for such a crime or see the
financial crisis banks were rescued but
the poorest we’re the losers corporate
interests have taken over he said and
our political elites don’t care for
democracy I could see he had somewhat of
a point a couple of days later I was
hiking up or as the Thai release would
say walking because it was a light walk
I was hiking after a mountain cabin with
a couple of students and Julia a law
student from London was our game did
democracies did because ordinary people
could be trusted with complexity she
said look look at Trump look at brexit
people have no clue and populist s’ were
always exploited which he argued it we
should look at Singapore they had found
a way with managed democracy where the
best delivered the best outcomes she’d
seen another way what would you have
argued in these situations
what would have been your points
standing at the akava late-night or
hiking up that mountain well you know
what I said and what I say today
democracy is not dead it’s still alive
and we can bring it back from the brink
we can if we allow citizens that is all
of us to get engaged in decision making
and lawmaking in a much deeper way than
just going to vote what I’m going to
tell you about are no fantasies but
tried and tested ways of online and
do you know Cafe Buena Ho in Vienna it’s
one of my favourite cafes nice newspaper
selection grumpy waiters ok coffee lots
of history a year ago I was sitting with
Axelle Lemaire Excel a French woman
trained as a lawyer and a couple of
years ago had joined the French
parliament as a political outsider and a
surprise move Excel was named the
first-ever Minister for digital affairs
in France in 2015 Excel was soon after
charged with creating the first-ever big
digital reform bill or Republic a bill
for the digital Republic governing all
digital regulation but she decided to do
it a different way because she had a
firm belief that citizens all of us
could be involved in lawmaking you know
we all use Wikipedia every day a product
of crowd intelligence but somehow we
haven’t gotten around to using that in
the process of lawmaking Excel wanted to
change that her Prime Minister was
skeptical and said look if this fails
your year on the line and have to resign
she didn’t get a budget so she took
30,000 euros out of her travel budget to
fund the online platform to harvest
ideas – right right this law just to
give you an example of what that meant
eSports
is massive in France and the eSports
community had no proper regulation no
law
governing their industry they were in a
gray zone next to illegality one that
online process opened asking citizens to
get involved in writing a digital bill
they brought forward suggestions and got
out and and made very sensible
suggestions of how to regulate the
industry now France has one of the most
modern eSports laws in the world can he
imagine a more a political community
than gamers and yet they got involved
the one thing however they haven’t quite
figured out yet is to sort of co-write
laws with your joystick I’m sure will be
there in ten years time when we see each
other next but you know what this is
good for harvesting the crowd
intelligence but what about ideological
questions that create big divisions
where online processes seem to even fire
up more discourse and more division is
there a way to create a common ground on
issues that are currently separating
Europe it’s just like gay marriage
immigration or as for Britain brexit
well I tell you there is a way ordinary
citizens any one of you could be among
them
chosen by the lot by random coming
together in an assembly and in a
protected safe environment talking and
debating and putting forward sensible
recommendations sounds weird to you
while it’s been tried and tested in fact
it’s been so successful that it’s been
running for a couple of years in the
Republic of Ireland and it’s called a
citizen assembly a year ago I traveled
to Dublin to meet one of the masterminds
behind the citizen assembly David
Ferrell David it’s a political scientist
by training I met him on a late November
night in a dublin pub drinking a couple
of pints of Guinness I hadn’t eaten so
Guiness always comes in handy as a
second meal David was telling me that
the financial crisis in 2008
was his big wake-up moment he decided
that there needed to be a way where the
gulf between citizenry and politicians
should be made smaller he convinced and
lobbied with collaborators that in 2012
government implemented the first-ever
nationwide citizen assembly it was so
successful that in 2016
yet another 99 citizens from all over
Ireland were selected by random
representative of the population and
they gathered to discuss debate and put
forward recommendations on very central
policy issues issues of constitutional
reform as well as some very tough
questions I’m going to tell you about
just to know what that was like one
issue they had debated was how Ireland
could become a leader in tackling
climate change and not lag behind as it
does now over weekend citizens would
hear independent expert advice then
later sit in small group discussions
among themselves with facilitators that
made sure that every single voice was
heard there was an independent
chairwoman that watched over that there
was no outside influence and in the end
on Sunday evening they voted on
recommendations that have been pulled up
together out of the sort of crowd
intelligence some of their
recommendations they then made to
Parliament in government went far beyond
what the politicians had thought
citizens would go go for heavy co2 taxes
closing immediately closing power
stations that were burning peat and
and were not being effective and hurting
the climate and heavy investment in
public transport but the hardest
question these people had to deal with
was whether to legalize abortion in
Ireland or not this question had been
dividing the country for more than 30
years and here they were over five
weekends debating and talking about an
issue that they themselves had very
differing opinions about that in the end
they recommended the government to lift
the ban on abortion that was written
into the Constitution and to hold a
referendum on this issue
the government felt forced to act animes
26 this year 2018 66 percent of the
Irish population voted in favor of
lifting in a ban on abortion you know I
think a way to bring democracy back from
the brink is simple allowing all of us
get involved allowing us to be a voice
that is heard in policymaking in law
making transforming what it is to be a
citizen the digital age gives us the
chance to rethink the way governments
and citizens interact how services are
provided and how our privacy is
protected
I want all lawmaking processes all over
Europe to be open for online
consultation before would they go into
Parliament’s before they’re considered
there and finally sort of crafted by
specialists I want citizen assemblies on
a regional level at Nations and advising
the European Parliament and I want them
to have a power of veto
when interests of future generations of
your children of my children are put at
stake by narrow political interests just
focusing on the next election
I want these citizen assemblies to
tackle the big questions how are we
going to deal with the climate crisis
how are we going to manage
digitalization so that it benefits all
of us and not just a few what society do
we want to live in I think we all can be
trusted with these questions but before
I end let me tell you two even simpler
ways of what we can almost do tomorrow
to bring democracy back from the brink
let’s go vote especially at the next
upcoming European elections and
preferably for people who put citizen
participation at the core of their
manifestos and even importantly let’s go
to the pub
and talked to somebody with we disagree
with trying to find common ground
leaving our filter bubble so let’s vote
and let’s talk thank you [Applause]
that democracy is dead I’ve also heard
it in conversations this August at the
Alper forum in Tyrol being engaged with
one of the most dynamic festival of
ideas in Europe I naturally get a chance
to talk to students from all over Europe
and the world I remember two
conversations in particular one night
standing outside gas stove Yacouba
opposite the church in the graveyard
wherever in trading is buried not his
cat another quantum physics Nobel Prize
beer in hand students warming out from
late-night lectures and art seminars
I was talking to Adam a chemistry
student from Frankfurt and he was
arguing that democracy was dead because
corporate interests had taken over look
at the diesel scandal the massive car
industry got away with no ordinary
business would have let been let off the
hook for such a crime or see the
financial crisis banks were rescued but
the poorest we’re the losers corporate
interests have taken over he said and
our political elites don’t care for
democracy I could see he had somewhat of
a point a couple of days later I was
hiking up or as the Thai release would
say walking because it was a light walk
I was hiking after a mountain cabin with
a couple of students and Julia a law
student from London was our game did
democracies did because ordinary people
could be trusted with complexity she
said look look at Trump look at brexit
people have no clue and populist s’ were
always exploited which he argued it we
should look at Singapore they had found
a way with managed democracy where the
best delivered the best outcomes she’d
seen another way what would you have
argued in these situations
what would have been your points
standing at the akava late-night or
hiking up that mountain well you know
what I said and what I say today
democracy is not dead it’s still alive
and we can bring it back from the brink
we can if we allow citizens that is all
of us to get engaged in decision making
and lawmaking in a much deeper way than
just going to vote what I’m going to
tell you about are no fantasies but
tried and tested ways of online and
do you know Cafe Buena Ho in Vienna it’s
one of my favourite cafes nice newspaper
selection grumpy waiters ok coffee lots
of history a year ago I was sitting with
Axelle Lemaire Excel a French woman
trained as a lawyer and a couple of
years ago had joined the French
parliament as a political outsider and a
surprise move Excel was named the
first-ever Minister for digital affairs
in France in 2015 Excel was soon after
charged with creating the first-ever big
digital reform bill or Republic a bill
for the digital Republic governing all
digital regulation but she decided to do
it a different way because she had a
firm belief that citizens all of us
could be involved in lawmaking you know
we all use Wikipedia every day a product
of crowd intelligence but somehow we
haven’t gotten around to using that in
the process of lawmaking Excel wanted to
change that her Prime Minister was
skeptical and said look if this fails
your year on the line and have to resign
she didn’t get a budget so she took
30,000 euros out of her travel budget to
fund the online platform to harvest
ideas – right right this law just to
give you an example of what that meant
eSports
is massive in France and the eSports
community had no proper regulation no
law
governing their industry they were in a
gray zone next to illegality one that
online process opened asking citizens to
get involved in writing a digital bill
they brought forward suggestions and got
out and and made very sensible
suggestions of how to regulate the
industry now France has one of the most
modern eSports laws in the world can he
imagine a more a political community
than gamers and yet they got involved
the one thing however they haven’t quite
figured out yet is to sort of co-write
laws with your joystick I’m sure will be
there in ten years time when we see each
other next but you know what this is
good for harvesting the crowd
intelligence but what about ideological
questions that create big divisions
where online processes seem to even fire
up more discourse and more division is
there a way to create a common ground on
issues that are currently separating
Europe it’s just like gay marriage
immigration or as for Britain brexit
well I tell you there is a way ordinary
citizens any one of you could be among
them
chosen by the lot by random coming
together in an assembly and in a
protected safe environment talking and
debating and putting forward sensible
recommendations sounds weird to you
while it’s been tried and tested in fact
it’s been so successful that it’s been
running for a couple of years in the
Republic of Ireland and it’s called a
citizen assembly a year ago I traveled
to Dublin to meet one of the masterminds
behind the citizen assembly David
Ferrell David it’s a political scientist
by training I met him on a late November
night in a dublin pub drinking a couple
of pints of Guinness I hadn’t eaten so
Guiness always comes in handy as a
second meal David was telling me that
the financial crisis in 2008
was his big wake-up moment he decided
that there needed to be a way where the
gulf between citizenry and politicians
should be made smaller he convinced and
lobbied with collaborators that in 2012
government implemented the first-ever
nationwide citizen assembly it was so
successful that in 2016
yet another 99 citizens from all over
Ireland were selected by random
representative of the population and
they gathered to discuss debate and put
forward recommendations on very central
policy issues issues of constitutional
reform as well as some very tough
questions I’m going to tell you about
just to know what that was like one
issue they had debated was how Ireland
could become a leader in tackling
climate change and not lag behind as it
does now over weekend citizens would
hear independent expert advice then
later sit in small group discussions
among themselves with facilitators that
made sure that every single voice was
heard there was an independent
chairwoman that watched over that there
was no outside influence and in the end
on Sunday evening they voted on
recommendations that have been pulled up
together out of the sort of crowd
intelligence some of their
recommendations they then made to
Parliament in government went far beyond
what the politicians had thought
citizens would go go for heavy co2 taxes
closing immediately closing power
stations that were burning peat and
and were not being effective and hurting
the climate and heavy investment in
public transport but the hardest
question these people had to deal with
was whether to legalize abortion in
Ireland or not this question had been
dividing the country for more than 30
years and here they were over five
weekends debating and talking about an
issue that they themselves had very
differing opinions about that in the end
they recommended the government to lift
the ban on abortion that was written
into the Constitution and to hold a
referendum on this issue
the government felt forced to act animes
26 this year 2018 66 percent of the
Irish population voted in favor of
lifting in a ban on abortion you know I
think a way to bring democracy back from
the brink is simple allowing all of us
get involved allowing us to be a voice
that is heard in policymaking in law
making transforming what it is to be a
citizen the digital age gives us the
chance to rethink the way governments
and citizens interact how services are
provided and how our privacy is
protected
I want all lawmaking processes all over
Europe to be open for online
consultation before would they go into
Parliament’s before they’re considered
there and finally sort of crafted by
specialists I want citizen assemblies on
a regional level at Nations and advising
the European Parliament and I want them
to have a power of veto
when interests of future generations of
your children of my children are put at
stake by narrow political interests just
focusing on the next election
I want these citizen assemblies to
tackle the big questions how are we
going to deal with the climate crisis
how are we going to manage
digitalization so that it benefits all
of us and not just a few what society do
we want to live in I think we all can be
trusted with these questions but before
I end let me tell you two even simpler
ways of what we can almost do tomorrow
to bring democracy back from the brink
let’s go vote especially at the next
upcoming European elections and
preferably for people who put citizen
participation at the core of their
manifestos and even importantly let’s go
to the pub
and talked to somebody with we disagree
with trying to find common ground
leaving our filter bubble so let’s vote
and let’s talk thank you [Applause]
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