Deliberative assembly

Thirty years since C.E.S. Franks published his authoritative 1987 work The Parliament of Canada, and despite the elevated media profile for would-be parliamentarian reformers and refuseniks after the Lefebvre and McGrath parliamentary reforms, the current Canadian House of Commons committee system remains comparatively understudied to similar Westminster-style democracies. Decades worth of government responses to committee recommendations are largely untouched, even by the Library of Parliament; empirical frameworks developed to judge committee influence and effectiveness in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand have not been exported to the uniquely Canadian federal experience. These gaps in literature impact the study of cabinet-parliamentary governments two-fold. Broadly, the current emphasis on heavily-scrutinized case studies of influential committees ipso facto cannot be representative of the average committee, either in its membership, public interest or even legislative capacity. Among the thirty-odd standing and special committees each session, few if any spur mainstream political capital; although committees may be the “masters of their domain,” as the prescribed “creatures of the House,” they live and study in majority governments at the government’s bequest. Likewise, views by former backbenchers cannot be divorced easily from their political climate – the high turnover rate for MPs exasperates negative views on the Parliamentary process, as expected given…

Hence, the two aforementioned quotations indicate Aristotle’s belief that the democratic view that the people should rule may also have merit because the political offices in a democracy are organized in such a manner that the important political decisions of the city are made by the citizen body collectively—enabling it to draw on its collective intelligence. For instance, according to Aristotle, key institutions such as the courts, the assembly, and the council—although bestowed with important…

The deliberative component deals with public affairs, the judicial component with deciding lawsuits, and the executive component with public order. Aristotle further elaborates on democratic justice. Democratic justice is equality for equals and inequality for unequals, because what is “just is just for certain people” (1280b16). Democracy “arose from those who are equal in some respect thinking themselves to be unqualifiedly equal; for because they are equally free, they think they are…

memorable. When I was younger,I wasn't the most tamed child, I had a tendency of getting into mischief. I Even once received ten minutes on the wall for getting into trouble. Time on the wall also meant how long you got held from recess. It was anywhere from stealing a pencil, to going onto the forbidden Monkey Bars. One day I went a little too far, and got twenty minutes on the wall. The whole second grade knew about the little scene I created in at the assembly. This all started with a…

Back to the Past The upcoming week is Spring Formal Dance at Phoenix High School. Students are passing notes, asking their crushes to the dance. Some students test their limits to go big, making posters saying, “Would you go to Spring Formal with me?”, and buying bouquets or chocolates or candy; who would ever say, “no” to that. Grace and her squad; Mason, Daisy, Olivia, and Maya; planned to walk together into the assembly. The assembly was authorized to inform the students about the Spring…

Democratic societies, when observed through the lens of deliberation, are reliant upon the exchange of information to reach (something close to) truth. The Greeks at the Agora at Athens regarded deliberative democracy as a means of “weighing” benefit and consequence (Shepard 1935). With such an ideal in mind, one may be lead to look upon the current state of information with favor—after all, the modern individual lives surrounded by information. However, the heightened pool of information and…

The first article Can Citizen Participation Become Reasonable goes over community participation and the reasonable person model. We discussed this articles example in class last Thursday and it brought up some good points about public meetings as a means of engagement. Public meetings are not the best method of getting information or help from the public because they are only one day usually, the group that shows up isn’t indicative of the entire community, and many people who come may not speak…

spontaneous process is based on one’s perception of that immediate instance versus the deliberative process where there is deliberation regarding behavioral options. Fazio (1990, 1999) argues that attitudes can dictate behavior in a spontaneous manner, without the individual consciously reflecting on the relevant attitude and without the individual’s awareness of the attitude’s influence. Memory automatically activates the attitude upon an immediate encounter with the attitude object, and this…

deliberate on their choices, and are often swayed by whatever current passion is taking place. To cure factions, Publius goes over several options, with the best option being a republican form of government. Instead of a direct democracy, the peoples’ voices are represented through elected officials, which have the capability of “refining and enlarging the public views.” A republic also has the ability to extend the sphere of political society. This means that there are a larger variety of…

Margaret Mead said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” I truly believe in the power of groups, and even better, well informed citizens that can create an impact in society fighting for change and been able to demand quality in their governments. A well informed person has an opinion, can comment and refute . The vitality of a democracy depends on the quality of its citizens, especially the amount of…