Mike Donovan: Unparty seeks to bring consensus decision-making to B.C. politics

    1 of 1 2 of 1

      Unparty: The Consensus-Building Party aims to fundamentally change B.C. politics from one dominated by power rivalries to one based on consensus decision-making. Today, elected politicians continually represent (re-present) their party to us and not the other way round. They constantly strive to convince us of their party’s special correctness even when their decisions run counter to our own understanding and needs. Unparty, however, values consensus-building as a means to reach decisions that fit with the common good.

      That each of us has a political representative in Victoria, acting in our best interests, is but a fairy-tale taught to schoolchildren. But supposing your delegate strains to represent you, even disobeys her/his party to do so, is that good? I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want someone to represent me on issues I find important. I want to represent myself. I don’t want someone making decisions on my behalf; I want my own voice. And I want you to have yours too. What’s more, I won’t insist that I am right and you are wrong. We can all participate in discussions, deliberate, and find some common ground.

      Searching for common ground, or consensus decision-making, embodies certain values: participation, collaboration, inclusion, equality, respect, and agreement-seeking. The governments of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut practice formal consensus governance. Criminal juries must reach consensus. In fact, we see it in daily life, such as when friends decide on a restaurant to dine in together, or a family chooses a vacation spot.

      Consensus decision-making is great in many ways, but its coolest trait is its potential for innovation. All members of the group share their knowledge and viewpoints. Information is never secret, and people build off the ideas of others (think Wikipedia). Participants propose solutions that could not have been dreamed up by any one individual or by a small leadership elite. As an example of group creation, this article you are reading now was crowdsourced at Unparty.ca.

      In adversarial systems, such as our current political one, speech is aggression. Therefore, strong people with weak ideas succeed where weak people with strong ideas fail. But, today, more than ever, we need to hear and implement those strong ideas. The crises are getting more severe and frequent: climate disruption, economic calamities, increasing job insecurity, reduced social services, environmental degradation, the democratic deficit, and more.

      These ideas propel Unparty. Unparty currently has no formal policy ideas on healthcare, the environment, jobs creation, et cetera. This is for you (all) to figure out and share with the rest of us. Unparty, itself, as an organization has no fixed form or course either. Unparty's configuration and action, its very future, are open to all. It’s our time, the people’s time, to come together, work together, in order to bring forth a better future! The key is to stay true to the consensus decision-making principles mentioned above and build from there. Observing the NDP-Liberal fighting, you might conclude that consensus decision-making is impossible. But let us refuse to allow those parties to define the possible!

      Unparty will be on the ballot in a couple Richmond districts. But its future is undetermined. Maybe all towns, municipalities, and cities should have an Unparty of their own (or a local, autonomous chapter of this Unparty?), a place for people to connect and discuss. And the multitude of Unparties across B.C. should communicate and deliberate with all the others using the same consensus-seeking value system. You decide. The future is unwritten. Will you play a part in it?

      Comments

      5 Comments

      Ozzie Sis

      Apr 2, 2013 at 12:57am

      Good one...you'd have my vote, if I had one.

      Linda Milne

      Apr 6, 2013 at 11:05am

      Love it Michael! you have my vote!!!!!

      B B Keddy

      May 4, 2013 at 1:54am

      Sounds great! Now I don't have to spoil my ballot. Finally, a change from patriarchal, hierarchical, competition-driven, power-over dynamics. With the Unparty, my vote counts. And not just my vote on election day, but my voice -- every day!

      C Ford

      May 9, 2013 at 11:52am

      Mike, love the enthusiasm. But have you considered that part of the duty of elected representatives is to understand the entirety of issues that are complicated or nuanced? Sure, we could all represent ourselves in parliament, but that would also require all of us to spend our full time researching every issue. A representative should be responsible to the people, but there also needs to be a certain amount of trust from the people to the representative. Otherwise, decisions will be made by populism rather than deliberation. California is running into trouble because of just that mindset.

      Mike

      May 9, 2013 at 12:32pm

      Hi, C Ford. Your questions are good, and require some effort to fully do them justice. I'd be happy to discuss at the unparty.ca website. But in brief: the elected reps DO NOT understand the complexity of society. In fact, no one person does. No party does. And, my belief is that you wouldn't have to spend all your time researching everything. You know your little bit. I know my little bit. Everyone knows a little something different. The old paradigm that information in its absolute completeness has to travel up a hierarchy to the wise decision makers is rapidly loosing its credibility in the internet age. In terms of California, I believe they ran into trouble due to referendums. Referendums is not what I am proposing. Have a look at "deliberative polls" if you want a glimpse of why polls (referendums) are not so great, and why deliberation is. Cheers. Thanks for the comments.