Today it’s my turn on the blog tour for Reinventing Democracy. My review is written with thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the tour and Palamedes PR for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

“The oldest democracy is now an obsolete model long overdue for replacement.”

90% of electors want political reform. But how to escape the mess? Britain should adopt a federal structure with a written constitution and an elected apolitical People’s Council replacing autocratic and ineffective bodies.

Growing concern about the relative economic deterioration of the United Kingdom led to realisation that the system of political governance is probably an unrecognised cause of British decline. Events over the last few years have provided a fertile supply of examples. All that was needed was some original thought, but nobody seemed to be facing facts.

At the centre of these ideas lie four major concepts:

1. The People’s Council to replace the Privy Council, House of Lords, and some scrutiny functions of the present House of Commons

2. A federal structure, with sovereignty defined as sovereignty of the people of each nation instead of the Crown in parliament.

3. Representation in United Kingdom-wide bodies to be determined according to the Fibonacci series, so that England can be outvoted by Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined, thereby preventing England treating the other nations as colonies.

4. The book includes a draft written constitution.

Review:

I think Reinventing Democracy is designed for people like me. I wouldn’t say my finger is totally on the political pulse, but I do show an interest in what the government is doing and I do think it’s time for political change, but I’m not really sure how it can be achieved. Here, David Kauders presents a very plausible alternative and sets out in great detail what it might look like. It’s astonishingly well researched and very accessible to read and it definitely gave me pause for thought. As it was written very recently, the examples that are used to illustrate the author’s points are ones that are fresh in the reader’s memory and this emphasises them even further.

There isn’t anything that David Kauders hasn’t thought of and Reinventing Democracy covers everything from the economy to the Royal Family, from healthcare to the justice system. He also looks at the structure of the government and how individuals could be made to be accountable for their decisions. I found it fascinating to be presented with a different way of doing things and to be able to think about how it might look in practice. There are obviously aspects of social policy I find more interesting than others, and whilst I did read the constitution in full, it would be easy to find the relevant sections and read the parts that interest you most if you wished to read in that way.

I really hope that Reinventing Democracy does create discussion amongst its readers and allows them to learn more about the democratic process.

Reinventing Democracy is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: