Mini-Issue Introduction: Democracy 2015

Introduction

On Tuesday 4 September, Andreas Whittam Smith, founder of The Independent newspaper launched Democracy 2015 – a new political movement running under the banner ‘People Politics, Not Party Politics’ that hopes to reverse public apathy towards politics and repair our broken political system.

Its aim is to win a majority at the 2015 general election in a truly people’s led movement. Anyone can get involved and anything is up for discussion. The manifesto will be put together by the people themselves with policies decided on through intense discussion and contemplation. Democracy 2015 runs against conventional party-politics; opposing the careerist politician and the electioneering, media centred system. It seeks to get ‘ordinary’ people into politics – people with experience of the working-world who have felt success in their field. With this, it is hoped that confidence in our politicians and political system can be restored and a better and healthier democracy can be found.

In this mini-issue we question and explore this audacious new movement and look at the successes and failures of similar outside political campaigns. It is a fascinating idea and one that we feel would benefit from a comprehensive debate. Articles will be released over the next two weeks on a variety of topics. Here’s a little of what you can expect to see:

• Criticisms of Democracy 2015
• Articles exploring alternative visions of
  British politics. Looking at what is wrong with politics today and what
  policies Britain would benefit from
• An interview from Democracy 2015 founder,
  Andreas Whitham Smith
• A study of other outside political
  movements, exploring their particular successes and failures

There should be something for eveyone in this issue. As always, thank you for reading and get commenting!

Best wishes,

George Richards

Editor-At-Large

(Go to: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/democracy2015/
to find out more about Democracy 2015)

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Related posts:

1. Democracy 2015 and the Philosopher-Kings: what our democracy can learn from Plato
2. Introduction to Issue 1: The BRICS
3. LGBT History Month mini-issue
4. Introduction to Issue 6: Capitalism
5. The Failure of Representative Democracy in Britain
6. Arts and Society: Introduction
7. Women and Politics: Introduction
8. Introduction
9. The Irony of Trust; an Exploration of Party Precedence