The Citizens’ Assembly will take its first six
weekends together (January through March, 2004) to explore the
variety and workings of different electoral systems and how they
contribute to the operation of democratic politics and government.
The following outlines the proposed program. It should be regarded
as subject to change. As the Assembly goes along, it will be
prepared to adapt to the needs and interests of Assembly
members.
This phase of Assembly activity will take place over six
weekends. They are planned to cover three general topics:
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The first two weekends will consider the place of electoral
systems within the political life of a democracy and consider the
criteria by which members can assess different systems.
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The second pair of weekends will deal with the nature of
electoral systems and review the characteristics of the five basic
families of electoral systems. Only when members know which family
they are interested in do they need to get into a consideration of
the many details that make up a particular system. Some of that
detailed work will be left for the deliberative phase in the
fall.
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The third pair of weekends will focus on the question of what
happenswhen you change an electoral system and, considering all the
members have learned, what systems should they be recommending to
British Columbians for more detailed consideration. At that stage
members will need to agree on a draft preliminary report.
Weekend meetings will include sessions that involve
presentations to the entire Assembly followed up by discussion
groups which will allow Assembly members to ask detailed questions
and discuss with one another the issues raised in the larger group
meetings. These discussion groups will be chaired by trained
facilitators who have a broad knowledge of how electoral systems
work and who are there to help ensure that all members get a chance
to participate fully in the discussions. These individuals are all
senior graduate students at either Simon Fraser University of the
University of British Columbia who have agreed to help the
Assembly.
The research staff will provide basic outline documents for each
of the sessions and recommend appropriate reading materials. They
know that members all have different amounts of time available
between sessions and so will try not to overload anyone. Members
who want more information or suggestions for extra reading need
only ask.
All members are being provided with an excellent introductory
textbook entitled Electoral Systems: A Comparative
Introduction by David Farrell. This will serve as a basic
reference source, especially for weeks 3, 4 and 5. The book has
lots of examples and illustrations and the staff hope it is
helpful.
Weekend 5, devoted to the question of what happens when you
choose and change an electoral system, will involve two visiting
experts to help lead the members' discussions. They are David
Farrell (the author of the members' book) from the University
of Manchester in England who is an expert on how electoral systems
work with wide experience of different electoral systems in Europe
and Australia. The second visitor will be Elizabeth McLeay,
from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, who has been
one of the lead researchers in a project assessing the consequences
of New Zealand’s decision to change from its electoral
system (which was very much like British Columbia’s) to
a new proportional one about ten years ago. She is an expert not
only on the electoral system but also its impact on the working of
political parties, parliament and government.
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