Democracy Reimagined argues that, despite appearances to the contrary, Britain is not a democracy. Once you look under the hood, it quickly becomes apparent that we live in an elective oligarchy, arguably even a plutocracy. “Democracy,” so-called, is a façade.

 

The book examines the various ways Britain’s political institutions and processes are not just undemocratic in that they lack democratic features, but sometimes actively anti-democratic. They directly oppose and are actively hostile towards democracy. Case studies and examples are used. The book critically examines:

 

- The very idea of holding elections.

- The functioning of Parliament.

- Political parties.

- The part the media plays in influencing election outcomes.

- The role big money plays in undermining democracy itself.

 

Democracy Reimagined then goes on to offer an alternative to the political system currently in play. The book argues that one of the principal ways The Establishment acts to maintain and advance its legitimacy, interests, powers and privileges is through elections. The UK is as much an electocracy as it is an oligarchy.

 

The book does not say that elections are routinely rigged, though that does happen, rather that elections in and of themselves are inherently undemocratic. As such, they should be abolished and replaced with non-electoral Proportional Representation methods of determining the makeup of Parliament. Specifically, the book advocates the use of sortition and massive, methodologically rigorous quarterly social surveys of the public’s political opinions and ideological beliefs.

 

Democracy Reimagined also champions a total revamping of the way Parliament works, advocating for a separation of powers, a written constitution, the abolition of the House of Lords and that, collectively, our political representatives should be demographically representative of We the People. I.e. the same proportions of age, gender, ethnicity and social class, etc in Parliament as in the country. Political parties, too, would be democratised. At present, they are highly elitist and undemocratic in terms of their structures and practices.

 

Lastly, you should know that Democracy Reimagined is proudly left-wing. It champions Democratic Socialism. In essence, it argues that both the Establishment and capitalism are intrinsically anti-democratic. They must be abolished. Real Democracy is socialist, and real socialism is democratic. The book will, of course, describe and explain the type of socialism it favours; decentralised cooperativism as much as possible, with the State playing a minimal role in terms of the public ownership of goods and services.