The Principles of Good Government
In the modern world, we have instant information and shopping 24 hours a day. But in our politics, we need to upgrade the model of politics stuck in the 19th century. Before any renovation, one must decide what a good outcome should look like.
This Guide to Good Government has been written to kickstart the national conversation about what we should be aspiring to as a country. The last decade has shown us that the old assumptions do not hold. We cannot simply expect integrity and competence. We must ensure it through a constitutional settlement based on rights and obligations encoded in the law.
The Citizens’ Charter is ALL’s contribution to the national debate required to renew our nation. ALL takes democracy to mean “Government for the people, by the people”.
At its most fundamental level, good government starts with two basic rights:
- The right to a voice.
- The right to good government and just laws.
Ensuring those rights entails government must be
- inclusive,
- representative,
- accountable,
- transparent and
- constitutional.
Core to this is that a democratic government is for all the people, not for a group, class, interest, or faction. It can never be some people acting primarily in their interests. As a government for all the people, that creates a duty bound to exercise equality of concern and equity of treatment for all.
Emphasising all the people means that democratic government is neither majoritarian nor minoritarian but inclusive in its aims, duties, and purposes. Any society is a diverse collection of individuals and minorities. So any majority is only a temporary coalition of minorities agreeing on an issue. A true democracy has systems to ensure all participate and all are represented.
Please download and review the entire document. We want to work with other civil society groups prepared to use this as the basis of a discussion about British democracy. Join us in shaking up British politics.