An update from Yvonne Murphy the creator of The Democracy Box
I had an email last week which asked
“Please could you advise if the Democracy Box programme is still running?”
Therefore I thought it was time for an update.
The Democracy Box research and development phase was completed, including all content creation by young co-creators, on July 4th 2024. A new updated version of The Democracy Box Story of our UK democracy that every citizen should know will be uploaded in the coming days. All three Democracy Box prototype solutions are tested and now ready to spread and scale.
The only current obstacle to scaling up these prototypes is buy-in from the people who hold the levers of power – in all levels of government and within the BBC.
I passionately believe that The Democracy Box is a ‘public good’ and therefore needs to be co-owned/co-produced by companies who have public service and democratic education and information as their core purpose. My vision is for publicly funded, arms-length organisations, including the BBC and the Electoral Commission, to come together and be the guardians of The Democracy Box and in collaboration with additional stakeholders and partners, including all local authorities, to embed and scale up The Democracy Box public information campaign prototype and The Democracy Box Creative Cascade programme for schools prototype. I would like to gift in-kind the entire body of The Democracy Box research, two prototypes and associated copyright to the BBC and the Electoral Commission along with unlimited access in perpetuity to The Democracy Box story for the benefit of all persons of the United Kingdom.
I believe that The Democracy Box model will support the BBC to meet its charter commitments to “build people’s understanding of all parts of the United Kingdom …so that all audiences can engage fully…and participate in the democratic process, at all levels, as active and informed citizens.” My research clearly demonstrates this public purpose is not currently being met.
Unfortunately after 5 years this vision is yet to become a reality and all Democracy Box platforms have now fallen silent and the work, whilst completed, tested and ready to go, sits gathering dust.
So what happens now? Will this body of research from the past 5 years (10 years if you include the root and foundation of this research and development) and all the work done with and by thousands of people across Wales simply fall off the edge of the cliff and then be repeated again with the same questions in a few years time?
It cannot and must not be the responsibility of one freelance creative to take this work forward. The research has been done. Thousands of people have all told me that basic democratic public information and education is needed on a large scale and how, where and by whom it should be created. I passionately believe in the concept of democracy and therefore I am writing to the Prime Minister, the First Minister of Wales and the Director General of the BBC. I will copy in all relevant ministers in both Wales and Westminster and my MP and members of Senedd. I would like to ask anyone reading this update to do the same.
I will be asking them all what their plans are to address the urgent need for widespread democratic education for all ages ahead of the next Welsh Parliament election and next General Election in 2029. I will also be asking for a commitment to read The Democracy Box report and respond to the recommendations.
Wherever you live in the UK you can find all your elected representatives by simply putting your postcode into to look up tool at writetothem.com and feel free to quote any of the below.
Please write to your MP and the Prime Minister and ask them to read The Democracy Box report and respond to the recommendations. Ask them what they plan to do to address the democratic health of the nation.
If you live in Wales please write to the First Minister and your Members of Senedd and ask them to read and respond to the recommendations in both The Democracy Box Report and the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales’ final report which concluded that
“Our inquiry shows that democracy in Wales – as throughout most of the contemporary world – needs urgent attention. Most people do not understand how their country is governed and who is responsible for what. Many feel that the system is not listening to their concerns and that they lack the information and understanding to discuss alternative constitutional options. There is a perception of powerlessness and distance between citizens and government, and a dearth of participatory structures that provide time and space for genuine public discussion and scrutiny. Many see democracy as beginning and ending with the ballot box and know little about the way representative institutions work.” – Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales Final Report
If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland please write to your members of devolved parliaments too.
Please feel free to quote from this update and The Democracy Box report.
The Democracy Box research has identified two key barriers to democratic participation:
- A lack of knowledge of, and access to, our democratic systems and structures
- A frenzied focus on elections and voting
Combined these two barriers create a perception that the ballot box is the only mechanism by which to influence or be involved in our democracy and mean that democratic education and information becomes sporadic and inconsistent and only deemed ‘newsworthy’ in the run up to an election
Democratic education and information for all ages needs to be at the top of the agenda for all politicians, for the BBC, and all news providers, every year and all year round not simply during an election year.
Now is the time for action. Not a few months before a General Election. Now, a few months after the last one is the time for change. If we don’t act now we will find ourselves in exactly the same predicament for elections in 2026 and 2029 with everyone running around like headless chickens suddenly asking how do we engage all the millions of disengaged people. The answer is simple. Engage now. Educate now. Inform now. Make basic democratic education and public information the norm and not an afterthought 6 weeks before an election.
Obviously if 100% of people are all informed, it does not follow that 100% of people will be engaged and participate. However, what is certain is that it gives them the choice. Not giving people the information they need to fully participate, and therefore not giving them the choice, is fundamentally undemocratic.
The Democracy Box report Beyond the Ballot Box recommends that our UK democracy is taught creatively and comprehensively going forward within formal state education and conveyed via mass, state-funded, public information campaigns and democracy hubs for all.
The Democracy Box prototypes have been trialled and tested for this purpose.
In the short-term I will attempt to include The Democracy Box Public Information Campaign prototype within The Talking Shop. It is not sustainable long-term but it will buy some time. I am currently trying to pioneer the first long-term Talking Shop in Wales to demonstrate how the model can be replicated in any region with a collective of local, regional and national partners and collaborators from the public, democratic and cultural sectors combined. I will also simultaneously attempt to get one brave local authority to roll out the Democracy Box Creative Cascade for Schools programme. I have given myself until June 2025 to see if I can get all three prototypes upscaled. If not successful by then it will be time to admit defeat.
Below is more information about the research and the identified need for anyone unfamiliar with the work. You can find everything Democracy Box related at The Democracy Box LinkTree
Thank you for reading.
All best wishes,
Yvonne
The Democracy Box has evidenced a democratic information/knowledge gap for the majority of the population caused by a severe lack of joined-up and easy-to-access information about our UK democracy which creates a barrier to democratic engagement and participation. The work has also demonstrated the success of creative innovative and inclusive solutions to our democratic deficit.
Many well-meaning and influential figures diminish the information gap and downplay its role, arguing that lack of knowledge or information is not a primary barrier to democratic participation.
And yet it is and has been cited as the primary barrier by every single one of the thousands of people who have contributed to The Democracy Box research.
“This is essential life knowledge. It’s as important as English and Maths.”
– Democracy Box young co-creator
I believe that there is a direct correlation between the decline of mass basic democratic education and the decline in voter turnout. Post-war saw a heyday of current affairs and public information by such organisations as the BBC, the Central Office for Information (responsible for Public Information Films) and the Bureau for Current Affairs (who promoted current affairs discussions within the work place and educational settings),
For over 70 years, from 1922 to 1997, voter turnout averaged above 70%. At the Bureau for Current Affair’s height in 1950 voter turnout reached an all-time high of 83.5%. Now with democratic education at an all-time low we are seeing shockingly low voter turnout and democratic engagement statistics. The lowest constituency turnout in the 2024 General Election was 40% whilst the average across the country was below 60%
“Turnout at the 2024 general election was 59.7%, which was the lowest at a general election since 2001.” – https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/general-election-2024-turnout/
In Wales the picture is bleaker still, which I would argue is a direct result of the complete lack of UK wide, joined up democratic education and public information since the introduction of devolution over 20 years ago
“Turnout in Senedd elections has never reached more than half of the electorate. While the 2021 election had the highest turnout since the Senedd was established, it still falls short of 50%.”
If we are to change the current levels of democratic participation (whether measured through the traditional and arguably unhelpful optics of voter registration and voter turn-out or through alternative and more holistic and creative methods), then we need to have sustained and long-term solutions to this very real, growing and urgent problem of our democratic deficit.
We must immediately cease to focus all of our energy, resources and media attention on elections and getting people to register to vote and vote. We must instead prioritise addressing the information gap that exists for the majority of the population with year-round democratic education and information and begin creating meaningful access to our existing democratic systems and structures. This will then lay the foundation for any subsequent work on elections, and voting and electoral, democratic and constitutional reform.
Focussing on elections and voter registration without explaining our democratic system is akin to asking someone to agree to play a team game or board game without first telling them the rules.
“Engagement comes from understanding. People are only going to be interested in something if they understand it. If you don’t understand, why would you take part?” – Olivia Winter Democracy Box young co-creator, aged 17
Researched, created and tested predominantly in Wales, all three Democracy Box prototypes have the potential to be up-scaled and rolled out across Wales and potentially the UK.
The conclusion of The Democracy Box research and report is that we cannot hope to increase democratic participation, engagement, voter registration and voter turn-out levels and/or have a national conversation at a devolved or UK level about our constitutional future and electoral reform unless the majority of all voting age citizens have a shared minimum level of basic knowledge about our existing structures and systems (constitution).
A strategy for creative and inspiring year-round democratic education for the population, from age seven and up, is urgently required – both within and beyond formal education.
For this to be achieved an attitude shift is required – not within the general public but for those in positions of power within government at all levels, the media, the democracy sector and anyone whose focus is currently the ballot box and turn out at elections.
An appetite to prioritise democratic education for all and address and change thinking, behaviour and beliefs which underpin and create four ‘problems’ as outlined in The Democracy Box report is also urgently required by decision makers, funders and policy makers in this area.
One thing this research has made clear is that when it comes to democracy, we, as a society, are very good at re-inventing the wheel and implementing short-term projects, fixes and solutions and are really quite poor at sustained, strategic and long-term, joined-up solutions. We are also very good at thinking we know how people want to receive information rather than co-creating it with them.
I have spent 5 years trying to explain to people in power that mass scale basic democratic education is required. I have spent hours facilitating people, young and old, speaking to power at all levels and explaining first hand why a lack of democratic education and information and focus on voting and elections are the key barriers to their own democratic participation and yet the penny is taking an awful long time to drop. So much so that I am beginning to believe that perhaps we do indeed live in a managed democracy.
Poor information flow and the subsequent lack of opportunity for the populace to impact decision making between elections could be defined as a managed democracy. A democracy that is reduced to elections and the demos (the people) as occasional voters.
A managed democracy could describe a situation where the interests of party politics, the media and the interests of individuals, organisations, movements and or groups are put above the interests of a whole population and a working democracy, because it is not in those persons’ vested interests who sit in positions of power and authority to challenge the status quo.
Unfortunately news providers only providing democratic education within education sections aimed at children (see Bitesize within the BBC) or having intermittent and inconsistent provision due to wrapping it around ‘newsworthy’ events, namely elections, and not providing consistent mass scale basic democratic education for all adults of all ages is a major part of the problem.
The Democracy Box research highlighted an urgent need to provide basic democratic education and information to citizens of all ages via three routes
- Public information campaigns for all ages, co-created with young people, including those from the historically lowest voter turn-out constituencies, and they must be paid for their time, skills, insights and experience.
- One-stop shop democracy hubs, both online and face to face, which are easy to access, welcoming, safe, creative and inspiring. Spaces where unexpected, informed and open conversations and creative approaches to deliberative democracy can begin. Spaces that can help us to build trust in our democracy and begin to tackle our democratic deficit and polarisation. Spaces that can enable us all to be informed and participating citizens; empowered to make the change we want to see in society.
- Democratic education baked into the primary and secondary school curriculums from age 7 to age 16 using inspiring and creative methods.
The Democracy Box has created prototype solutions for all three routes and The Democracy Box report strongly recommends that The Democracy Box prototypes should spread and scaled and used to educate and inform the nation and thereby increase democratic engagement and participation.
The Democracy Box is about finding new creative ways to share The Story of our UK Democracy That Every Citizen Should Know In Seven Short Chapters so that people of all ages can understand our UK democracy and can take part in it.
The Democracy Box is not a project for young people. It is for all UK citizens of every age. The R&D phase recruited and trained over 70 young people aged 16-26 as young co-creators because that age group is one of the lowest voter turnout demographics. However as well as working with co-creators I interviewed, surveyed and tested The Democracy Box prototypes with hundreds of people of all ages across Wales, including recording 12,937 visits to Talking Shop trials in Cardiff, Newport, Merthyr Tydfil and Blackwood.
Going forward people of all ages from all groups most under-represented at the ballot box need to become Democracy Box co-creators.
Investing in The Democracy Box prototypes outlined in this report, along with additional digital tools, such as writetothem.com, theyworkforyou.com and whocanIvotefor.co.uk, and existing models, such as citizen’s assemblies and citizen’s panels, could be a game changer for our Welsh and UK democracy and radically increase democratic participation both at and beyond the ballot box.
“I want us all to know what democracy means. Everything that we need to learn about our democracy is everywhere, making it difficult and overwhelming to find. I want to help build a place where all our vital information to understanding our UK democracy is. We are making it accessible and easy to learn about the structure of our politics. This way, everyone understands how important their voice is, leading to a bigger, brighter future for us all.”
– Democracy Box young co-creator on Instagram
Contact omidaze@outlook.com for further information.
The Talking Shop© and The Democracy Box© and all associated content is copyright Omidaze Productions/Yvonne Murphy 2020. All rights reserved