Our March meeting is on Thursday 6th.

Peter Garbutt will be leading a discussion on Direct Democracy, Citizens Assemblies and the question do we need political parties? Peter is a former councillor and is active in Sheffield politics and it is great to have him come to us for the second time.  He promises to be thoughtful and challenging and he has provided a reading list for us in advance of the meeting.

We look forward to seeing you 7pm, Red Lion.

Peter’s reading list

I have a few articles with other links which others might want to follow up:

First is my article published in Yorkshire Bylines; it’s worth noting I wrote this from my own thought processes, with knowledge of only 3 Citizen’s Assemblies, and all the other material has surfaced in responses on social media.

https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/politics/sortition-revolution-a-bold-plan-to-avert-civilisations-collapse/

This next came up shortly after, it mentions experiments in USA, Canada and Australia.

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-case-for-abolishing-elections/

And this one covers central European experiments.

Citizens-Assemblies-Democratic-Responses-to-Authoritarian-Challenges-in-Central-and-Eastern-Europe_2024-11-20-110352_nsha (1).pdf

David Van Raybrouck’s book, Against Elections.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645360/against-elections-by-david-van-reybrouck/

Come and join the discussion

You are warmly invited to join us at The Red Lion, 109 Charles St, Sheffield, S1 2ND, for our next meeting on 6 March 2025 at 7:00pm, (in the snug behind the bar).

See here for location.

Upcoming events

All our future events are advertised here: Upcoming Events.