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May 28, 2007 at 1:11 pm
danielharan
Be careful about the difference between what politicians say and what they do – it could easily lead to more apathy. Many groups ask politicians what they think about issues, and one easy step would be to aggregate all those responses.
We should demand of our governments that they publish Hansards in accessible formats. For each level of government, we should be able to know who said what on what issues, and how they voted. Let politicians stand on their records rather than promises.
Once the data is published, an idea like the one you suggest is trivial to implement. Until then, it’s a lot of work. Witness the amount of work required to make http://www.howdtheyvote.ca/ work (they need coding help: http://sourceforge.net/projects/howdtheyvote )
May 28, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Mat
Thanks for the comment Daniel.
I do agree with your suggestion that this should involve aggregating responses already provided by politicians. To be clear, I’m not expecting politicians to fill out the material on the site, but rather it will be generated by a combination of automatic aggregation (if possible), users, and politicians, through conversation. Think of each cell in the matrix as a blog entry (or a wiki, perhaps?).
And for sure, hansard should be made available, easily and searchable. Politicians *should* stand on what they’ve said and done in the House. But elections are not simply about retrospection, and in the case of new candidates looking back is of no help at all.
howdtheyvote is a neat project. Thanks for pointing it out.
Would it be a lot of work to pull together the information for a site like I describe? I doubt it. I bet politicos (and regular joes & jills) would be more than willing to contribute material. Put the site up, let the debate flourish… it should converge on exactly where each politician stands on ever issue. If the politicians don’t like it, it would be up to them to set the record straight (using the site, of course). But should they choose to remain silent, the public will simply offer up its interpretation of their stance.
May 30, 2007 at 1:51 am
danielharan
I’m probably a lot more cynical than you.
I’d rather hold a politician’s feet to the fire on their voting record than on their promises. If they supported some dumb-ass war two years ago and say we now have to withdraw, are they just chicken-shit or did they really see the light?
There’s also the issue of looking back to see if they follow through on their promises. We need to be able to see what they promised, and exactly how they voted. And we should hold them accountable for that too.
A good place to start if you want to aggregate data would be to provide a platform for different advocacy groups to structure their data and publish it with less effort. You’d be doing a lot of people a great service.
June 5, 2007 at 1:50 am
matbalez
Someone a lot more cynical than me! I’ve not come across many people like that before
“A good place to start if you want to aggregate data would be to provide a platform for different advocacy groups to structure their data and publish it with less effort. You’d be doing a lot of people a great service.”
I think that sounds pretty good, but that doesn’t help me cast my ballot.
The historical look back that you describe would definitely help inform my vote, but it’s insufficient — I also need to know what my public servants intends to do in the coming term. Obviously, the ideal system would provide a snapshot of both facets, as I think they’re probably equally important (think of their accountability serving as a weighting on the confidence of their promises…)
I’d still like to build this… but need help.
June 6, 2007 at 4:10 am
Mat
Interestingly, my friend Shant told me today that he came up with a very similar concept last year around election time — except his was even better.
I suppose great minds think alike (Shant’s and Fiona’s that is… I’m just the chump writing the words).