Proposals for political reform usually seek to change the way that political power is achieved, how laws are made, and how politicians act. They may affect any of:
It is obviously more difficult to predict future political reforms.
In Creating a New Civilization - The Politics of the Third Wave, 1994, Alvin and Heidi Toffler argue (supported by Newt Gingrich who wrote the foreword), argue that future reform to liberal democracy will tend to:
Other concerns likely to be reflected in future political reforms include:
freedoms, politics as usual, civics as usual
- electoral reform to change the way citizens elect or recall representatives, e.g. term limits
- more general democratic renewal that may alter other aspects of public decision making such as introducing a referendum or changing the voting age
- constitutional reform to change the fundamental instutions of government.
- parliamentary reform to change how laws are made in a parliamentary system
- administrative reform to change the regulations or actions reguarding unelected officials.
- tax reform to change the way citizens are taxed.
- proposals to reform how political parties work.
- who has eligibility to vote
- the effect of bribes, coercion, conflicts of interest or corruption on politics.
- freedom of information to reduce the secrecy by which government operates.
[+] uniqueness, copying, staging
[+] typical historical sequence of reforms
anticipated future reforms
It is obviously more difficult to predict future political reforms.
In Creating a New Civilization - The Politics of the Third Wave, 1994, Alvin and Heidi Toffler argue (supported by Newt Gingrich who wrote the foreword), argue that future reform to liberal democracy will tend to:
- semi-direct democracy with the elected representative increasingly in the mediator rather than decision maker role
- minority power recognizing that many minorities now have rights and power and determination to disrupt society even when laws fully reflect a clear majority view
- decision division to generally decentralize and empower the most local decision maker, though in some cases (such as climate change, fishery, biodiversity or slavery) it may be necessary to globalize a decision and make it collectively at the UN or as a trade bloc.
Other concerns likely to be reflected in future political reforms include:
- political privacy - possibly implemented with blind credentials - in an age where subtle and deliberate targetting of people for their views is easier and could be done by any state or powerful corporate entity
- limiting some Troll Age tactics such as negative campaigns, political identity theft and hacktivism.
- more transparent government purchasing to validate that the way a state spends citizen's money reflects those citizens' values and does not propagate processes that the citizens themselves believe are responsible for conflict or harm to others they care about
Related issues
freedoms, politics as usual, civics as usual