Despite what some are calling a democratic revival (the occupy movement) actual voter turnout in elections around the world continue to show dismal participation numbers. Citizens are simply not going to the polls, and in a lot of places election participation rates have decreased over the last few elections.
Nowhere is this lack of engagement with the citizenry so apparent as the European Union. With the financial disasters sweeping through the Euro zone, the legitimacy, function, and role of supra-national institutions such as the Union and the European Central Bank are being called into question. Of prime concern to myself is how little involvement and consultation there is between European citizens and the decision making that takes place regarding the union as a whole. But what's happening there is a good example of what may be happening on a smaller scale in other democratic systems, whereby representative democracy is seeing improved and increased efficiency (i.e., faster decision making) but at the expense of having citizens involved and informed as to what's going on in parliaments.
This article from the BBC points out that the increasing power of the European Union has seen a concomitant decline in voter participation in EU elections. This is of considerable concern as the EU begins to exert more and more influence over the laws that affect all EU nations. However, with the unelected commission and a very convoluted system for electing European parliamentary members, the connection between voters and their 'representatives' is becoming, in my opinion, more and more tenuous, and further from being legitimate (in that the members can legitimately claim to 'represent' their constituencies).
So allow me to suggest that at all levels, and in all nations, there needs to be renewed awareness surrounding the extent to which government 'representatives' legitimately represent, are held accountable to, and consult with, the citizenry. Here in BC we continue to see less and less consultation between members of government and their constituents. We need to remind ourselves, and re-affirm, that members are not elected to do what they think is best, but are elected to represent a given constituency. This should be the central focus and concern of any kind of democratic renewal, or for any voter or citizen in general!
