15. Hundred Democracy

Not all democratic principles come from the ancient Greeks or from the philosophers of the enlightenment.  Some ideas can be found in the day to day experience of history.



Author: Thomas Moule

 

One example of such an idea is that of the hundreds.  In a British context the hundreds were political units of roughly one hundred households that came together under the supervision of a hundred 'man' or 'elder' in a recognised place, such as a hill or other local landmark.  Their purpose was to settle questions of administration, law and military organisation.  Originally established by the Saxons, hundreds operated for over a thousand years in Britain in some form or other right up until the nineteenth century.



Here is a description of how they worked in their Anglo Saxon heyday from Aurea Mediocritas:



...households were sub-divided into groups of ten (a tithe) who then selected a representative to attend a “hundred-moot”, where they would meet up every four weeks with the representatives of the other tithes and the king’s financial officers to settle matters of taxation, law and order and legal disputes within the hundred. The representative of the king could offer advice but the decisions were made by the local people.

So how might this apply today?

Well modern style hundred local democracy would replace our current elected representative system and work like this:

• A mayor would need to be elected for each city, town and other administrative areas (shires)
• The mayor would be responsibly for allocating every household to a tithe and every tithe to a hundred within the shire
• Tithes would have the opportunity to select (however they wished) a representative to the hundred and the hundred would also select an elder
• Most meetings would be small enough to take place in pubs, cafes or homes
• Shire councils including all of the hundred elders and representatives of national government would decide all matters of policy as needed for the local area



This system is one based on a delegate rather than a Burkean notion of representation - one that has been criticised recently by some.  It also allows flexibility for selection processes in tithes and shires - as long as only one person is selected local custom and practice can apply.  Thus the potential bureaucratic burden of administration and regulation is reduced.

Doubtless there will be problems in the system such as disputed and inactive tithes and hundreds and it will be for the Mayor to address these issues and to be accountable for doing so.

Despite potential difficulties this form of local democracy might nevertheless feel more natural to run that current arrangements - after all it does have a thousand year history.

Update:  Thanks to @cataspanglish for pointing out the Catalan version.

14. Volunteer Democracy

This version of local democracy comes from an idea I mentioned in passing in the localopolis pamphlet - that anyone who wants to should be able to become a councillor.

I was reminded of it by some recent comments by Grant Schapps MP, Minister of State for Housing & Local Government, that the professionalisation of councillors was a worrying trend and that they should be volunteers.

My argument would go like this:

• Local political representatives are there to do a job - it doesn't matter how they are selected it is what they do that matters
• We get very tied up with the idea that representatives have to be elected and this is what makes them legitimate but why?  In ancient Athens they drew lots and we are quite comfortable with that method for selecting juries.  So the method is just a means to an end not an end in itself.
• One of the reasons we use elections and lots is to select the few from the many but this hardly seems to be a problem as far as local councillors are concerned.  Local political parties often struggle to get people onto ballot papers and many seats are uncontested.
• Clay Shirky has recently been talking about a cognitive surplus that social media might be able to harness - in a similar vein what about  focusing on civic surplus and how local government might harness that?  People who are unemployed, retired or just have a little spare time might all want to give being a councillor a go.
• Giving everyone a go at being a local councillor would be an excellent way to raise awareness and understanding of local democracy throughout the community

So why not offer the opportunity of being a councillor to all citizens and, instead of thinking about how we fix the electoral process concentrate on redesigning institutions to accommodate everyone who wants to volunteer?

Here are some thoughts about how it might work in practice:

• Every four years, instead of local elections we have local invitations - letters to all eligible citizens inviting them to volunteer to serve as a councillor
• Volunteers would them be allocated jobs, for example, sitting in council meetings to vote on council decisions, working on scrutiny committees and policy juries, dealing with service problems and complaints - there might be an interesting hook up with the Citizen's Advice Bureau here - after all councillors in 'surgery mode' fulfil a similar advice role.  I'm sure that there are many other roles.
• Representativeness and equality could be addressed from within the pool of volunteers so that their is a reasonable mix of volunteers for each task - this would also promote social cohesion as people from different parts of the community get to interact
• If needed there could still be a formal election for a mayor or similar to facilitate the whole process
• If there are too many volunteers then lots might still be used, or better still, give people one or two year terms of office - even better would be to keep redesigning local government so that everyone can be put to work for the civic good

I think this would also be a neat way to solve the thorny problems associated with combining representative and participative democracy - in fact it's possibly the neatest.

5. Real Representation

This idea is a summary of some of the ideas set out by Gerry Stoker in his book Why Politics Matters given from a local government perspective. 

In this book Stoker argues for a viable and realistic 'politics for amateurs' that can give people genuine opportunities to get engaged whilst taking account of the realities of the modern world.

For Stoker representation needs to be more than the minimum - that people should just vote to select their representatives and then do nothing more.  Instead 'it requires a sustained connection between the representative and those who are represented'. People expect their representatives to reflect their own wants and interests and, whilst they don't want direct democracy, they want to be communicated with and dealt in a better way than happens now.  As Stoker argues:

If representation is made effective then people can focus on passively and sporadically monitoring rather than engaging with intensity at all times; in short it is the ideal mechanism for delivering what the amateur political citizen wants

Stoker suggests some mainstream areas for reform to strengthen representation:

• Social Representativeness - People will feel better represented if local councils reflect the social diversity in any area.  Encouragement could be offered to women and to ethnic groups and institutions could be made more friendly to those underrepresented
• Maintaining Ethical Standards - Strong leadership and transparency can be combined with independent oversight to create the right environment for high standards and this will build public trust and confidence
• Competitive Elections - Some form  of electoral reform, such as proportional representation, might help ensure that everyone feels that their vote has counted and therefore strengthen the relationship with those who represent them

Stoker also suggests three 'unconventional' reforms:

• Conversational Democracy Through ICT - This may well be more of a challenge for the councillor than for much of the public - however it provides an ideal mechanism for citizens to dip in and out of politics when they need to.  (Stoker's book was published in pre twitter 2006 - this might now be more of a 'mainstream idea')
• Re-engineering Representative Politics - This is about councillors examining how they spend their time and thinking about whether their time could be used more effectively to connect with citizens.
• A Representativeness Challenge to Campaign and Civic Groups - To demonstrate that they really do reach out to those that they seek to represent

Many local councils are already using councillor role descriptions and some also expect their councillors to produce annual reports.  You could argue that these are steps that are being taken towards real representation at the local level.  At least it show that the problem is being given some attention.