A friend forwarded this me, an interesting TED presentation by David Cameron, the head of Britain’s Conservative Party. It’s brief, but thematically I think it’s on point, and things like behavioral economics have even much deeper potential for political design.
Staging the Play of Zimbabwe’s Constitution
In Constitution-Making on February 21, 2010 at 9:08 amIn an interesting engagement of an ongoing constitution-making project, a playwright named Steven Chifunyise in Zimbabwe is currently putting on a play concerned with the country’s current issues with its constitution. According to a recent post on the play, Chifunyise is quoted commenting on the constitution and the play:
“What is wrong with the current one? Why was the 2000 constitution rejected? How achievable is a people-driven constitution? Who are the people? What are the dynamics of constitution-making? What fundamentals and ideals make a democratic constitution? Who are the custodians, enforcers and watchdogs of a democratic constitution?”
The playwright is asking some good questions about constitution-making, questions I haven’t always heard from those involved more directly in constitution-making.
I wonder if increased promotion of the arts in the early stages of constitution-making as a way of engaging more audiences should be advocated in future projects.
Transparency and Trust in Government
In Uncategorized on February 17, 2010 at 8:42 amNextgov.com recently posted a short article on a ForeSee Results new study indicating that online government transparency efforts may be increasing trust in government. ForeSee reports that their survey included some 30,000 folks, a clearly respectable number.
While increased transparency positively influencing citizen trust in government is not only intuitive but also accords well with traditional political philosophies, I wonder if the phenomenon would hold true in different situations.
A friend working on the ground in Afghanistan recently told me that while the younger generation in that country are tech savvy and Facebooking and using other contemporary tools, the power structures there are rigid and personality driven with little accountability and much corruption. So I wonder what innovative government transparency would look like in countries that are still trying to establish governance and rule of law. Ushahidi-type apps?
More importantly, would citizen trust in governing structures follow the same curve with respect to transparency as it does here in the US? Would it be a steeper curve? A shallower one?
