The current tense political situation in after-Brexit Britain has tested the unity of the United Kingdom as never before. We believe it can only be resolved by a kind of a constitutional conference, which will debate new relationships between the four nations as well as deep reforms of the British democracy, which are long overdue.
UK Agora is a Think Tank specially set up by Sustensis, to support the forthcoming debates, which may accompany a several months long conference, perhaps to be called the Conference on the Future of Britain. We have created a model of such a Conference based on our support for the Conference for the Future of Europe (COFE), launched by the EU on 9 May 2021. Apart from discussing constitutional arrangements between the four nations, the Conference should also ignite a debate on the way in which the citizens can co-govern their country throughout the term of the parliament. Therefore, one of the main objectives of the Conference on the Future of Britain should be the increased participation of citizens in decision making by creating Citizens’ Assemblies within the regions of the four nations.
This may become perhaps the most unique political event in the British democracy in the last two centuries. Similarly as the ancient Athenians created a direct democracy 2,500 years ago as a response to politcial corruption, we should create a new type of democracy – a Consensual Democracy by merging the best features of representational and direct democracy. One of the products of this new type of democracy should be the creation of the second chamber of the Parliament – the Citizens’ Chamber.
If this Conference goes ahead and involves the UK citizens in a similar way as the Coference on the Future of Europe, there may be tens of thousands citizens involved meeting at hundreds of events and generating thousands of ideas on how to re-assemble Britain. How could then this massive amount of information be turned into coherent proposals delivered not only quickly in a succinct form but also in a conciliatory, rather than in an adversarial way?
An approach, which Sustensis is proposing right now is called Consensual Debating and is linked to probably the most advanced AI-driven solution for political debates called POLIS, used in such countries as the USA, Canada, Australia, or Taiwan. It has also been used in the UK, amng others by the prestigious DEMOS organisation. It is mostly used in debates on proposing a new legislation. It does not only streamline the debates on each of the ideas but also enables the participants in the debate to come to a conciliatory agreement perhaps 100 times faster (in days rather than in months).
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