“There is a ‘crisis of listening’ in contemporary societies” (Jim Macnamara) This research finding was an inspiration for this website and for PEP’s continued interest in listening, especially as it relates to politics and democracy. According to Andrew Dobson, democratic politics has been dominated by ‘voice’ over ‘listening’ since the time of Aristotle … but…
PEP Partner, John Pennington, has article about localism in the May 2019 volume of the NZ Local Government Magazine. If the image of it above isn’t readable, it’s available here – it’s free to get a log in if you don’t already have one.
First for the bad news. Representative democracy is not in good shape and the signs for improvement are not bright. After 200 years it is on the ropes due to a laundry sized list of ailments: falling rates of voter turn-out, especially amongst the young; shrinking party membership; the low esteem and suspicion politicians are…
Have you heard anything about renewing the state of NZ’s democracy, even whispers, from the new Government? How about from other organisations? I’ve been listening but, despite worrying trends in voter turnout, trust and confidence, haven’t heard much at all. ‘Listening is an instrument of power’ [1], so you know something is up when the…
If you happened to be in Wellington last week and were hanging out at Victoria University and a few other venues around town then you would’ve had the opportunity of catching one or more of Victoria University’s discussions on democracy. Simon and I went along to a few and found the events well organised and…