Solve Anything! Building Ideas through Design - Mar 2010

Questions

How can we be active participants in our own social well being?  How can governance be put into the hands of everyone?  How can citizens become more involved in the electoral process?  How can we participate more in  governance and not just react to rules and laws?

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Many Western electoral systems are broken. Fewer people are voting, and those of us who do vote can only shake our heads as our efforts are at best marginalized and at worst irrelevant. In Canada, our challenges are intertwined: 1) Our first past the post system is fundamentally undemocratic and results in disproportionate power distribution and 2) knowing full well that most vote don't matter, increasing number of Canadians are choosing not to vote. We desperately need a design overhaul whereby every vote counts and citizens can see that they do have real power. This is a necessary precursor to building a vibrant civil society that holds its elected officials accountable for their actions and participates in creating vibrant resilient communities.

My thoughts are evolving, but what I am strarting to hone in on (with regard to getting my design mojo going) is how can we bridge newer and arguable increasingly people-centred  models of civic activism with traditional models of citizenship and governance.  There is aspect here of shaking up how power is exercised and understood which I am having trouble articulating.  I need to think about this some more.