Democracy and the Political Process

Our democracy can be strengthened by adoption of the following:

a)??? Elections are conducted every four years on the same date.

b)?? One year before the date of the election, people are asked by confidential ballot to identify the twenty top outcomes they desire from whichever party wins the forthcoming election. This is called the Outcomes Ballot.

c)??? Three months after the Outcomes Ballot, the top outcomes are publicly declared. (Note: in government there are hundreds of issues that the government will need to deal with – and this won’t change. However, the winning government will be held responsible for effectively delivering those outcomes that the constituency has stipulated as their most important outcomes.)

d)?? Over the next six months, all political parties wishing to contest the forthcoming election develop their responses, methods, systems, investment in, and deliverables of each of those twenty outcomes.

e)??? Three months before the forthcoming election, all parties state and promote in public their policies on each of the top 20 declared outcomes specifying:

??????? I.??????? The outcome sought.

??????? II.??????? The strategy that they will use.

??????? III.??????? How the strategy will work.

??????? IV.??????? What will be delivered.

???????? V.??????? What are the outcomes and impacts of their policy on relevant population segments.

???????? VI.??????? What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) to let the public know how we’re tracking to the outcomes.

VII. The costs and resources needed to deliver their "promise".

f)???? The election is conducted on the specified date. Citizens vote on the basis of the best party to deliver the twenty outcomes required.

It is a vote by the citizenry on their preferred party that will deliver the declared outcomes and the government is held accountable for its delivery.

In this way, the political party and therefore the government is expressly in that role to give the constituency what it wants/requires, and not to pursue the party’s own agenda.