Big babies.

Political life can sometimes give you flashes of democracy's real potential. I recently had the opportunity to witness one of these. A couple of years back, the Government of the Province of Ontario (Canada's most populated province), where I live, put together an assembly made up of interested citizens--one picked from each electoral riding--to explore whether the present first-past-the-post electoral system was the best we could do. After a year of deliberation and close study they decided 'no'--that the system was unfair in a number of ways. Instead, they proposed an electoral system that would give contending political parties the number of seats dictated by their percentage of the votes. This would allow every citizen's vote to count (not just those who voted for a winner in their particular riding) and also give smaller parties a better chance to win seats. The idea will now go to referendum. Whatever the result, the way these non-experts came to grips with the intricacies and implications of potential electoral models was truly impressive. So why can't democracy always be like this?

I pondered. These people were treated in a respectful way (like adults) and given the tools (both financial and intellectual) to do the job. This is a rarity in our political culture, where for the most part the political class and its various acolytes and retainers treat the citizenry like small children. They play on our childish fears and insecurities to replace reasoned debate with manoeuvring and manipulation. Sometimes we are taken in, but increasingly we are just 'turned off. Either result suits their purpose--getting their own way and staying in power. Hence this issue on the rather arcane topic of'political infantilization', in the hope of helping to start a discussion on how we are being condescended to--and making them stop. The stakes are high.

Richard Swift for the New Internationalist Co-operative

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