How can tech improve democracy? 

Non-democratic countries are getting ahead and Western economies are falling behind. Government gridlock caused by partisan politics is making it harder to keep up with less democratic competitors who are aiming to dominate the global economic arena. This week, China announced it has opened a Mars colony designed to simulate the colonization of Mars, and to inspire those fortunate enough to visit that the future is theirs to strive for. 

In the next 10 years, the United States will no longer be the largest economy. Here in Canada, major infrastructure projects like the Trans-Mountain Pipeline, 5G telecommunication, and smart-communities like Sidewalk Labsare slowed down or stopped completely because of partisan politics and a lack of assured political consensus for the path forward. 

 As of writing this, the Brexit debate has now entered its second year of gridlock, with no solution for the “leave” or “remain” campaigns in site. It has taken down two Prime Ministers, and devoured the bandwidth capacity for government to accomplish anything else in the time between. The United Kingdom, and all Western democracies, need to start thinking about how technology can disrupt traditional partisan politics and help drive more consensus based decision making. 

To be clear- this is not a debate about the merits of living in a democracy. The benefits are immeasurable, and our ability to overcome the global challenges of the next century depend on its careful preservation. But this begs the question, how do we compete with China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and those less democratic states who are quickly becoming modern and economically competitive? One answer could be that we strive to make our democracies more inclusive and efficient through technology. 

Canada has the opportunity to be a global leader in data based decision making. Through government led open data initiatives, political parties have the opportunity to back up their policy proposals with facts and consensus. But we shouldn’t leave this task solely up our government and politicians. As Canadians, we have an obligation to use technology to communicate and engage with government. To give feedback on what’s working and on what’s not. 

This process does not have to be partisan. In the history of Westminster Parliament, until very recently, political parties have gauged support for policy based on targeted polling, grassroots communication, and “getting out” into the community to hear what folks are saying. Technology will rapidly disrupt this style of politics, allowing citizens to provide specific and quantifiable support on particular policies they like and dislike, providing open data that will force political parties on all sides closer to the center. 

Will there be growing pains? Absolutely, just look at the year Facebook just had. But the reality is that any variable thrown into the operating system of democracy will come with lessons learned. More importantly, our undemocratic competitors are outrunning us in the global arena, and we need to do our democracies better if we want to catch up.