Demos is on a mission to build a more collaborative democracy. One which enables politicians, policy-makers and experts from business, civil society and academia and the public to work in partnership to understand and tackle the massive challenges facing our country.
The scale of the challenges – from the cost-of-living crisis, to the emergency crisis and our crumbling public services – means that politicians will have to make hard choices, brave choices that tackle the issues that matter to people and bridge divides rather than driving us apart. But the way policy is made usually swings from divisive and partisan, to technocratic and unresponsive to people’s lived experience.
As a result, citizens are divided, people feel powerless, policies focus on short term sticking plasters not long term change, and politicians aren’t trusted to provide the solutions.
We need a collaborative democracy which puts people at the heart of policy making. This will start to address these problems by creating policies that work for people, strengthening citizenry, and improving trust in the political system.
Demos works with politicians and policy-makers to put people at the heart of policy-making using deliberative and participatory methods – from citizen assemblies to digital democracy. We are creating a blueprint for how the government could embed citizen participation in national policy making, through practical projects, showing how involving people leads to better policies.
Contact Director of Participatory Programmes Miriam Levin to hear more.
