“the city in which those who are going to rule have the least desire to do so must be the best governed city and the one most free from strife. And if it gets the opposite sort of rulers, it must be ruled in the opposite manner Plato, The Republic

Our current system allows politicians to prioritise funders over voters: we need a standing citizen assembly chosen by lottery to assert itself into the voting process. It is time to expose the difference between party lines and what the people actually want.

What if we could have a secret ballot on the issues Congress refuses to touch? From Brexit to gun checks, discover the one mechanism that could make parliaments responsible again. The power of the "better angels" is closer than you think.

The Spanish have a term for the last portion which noone will have for fear of looking greedy “The morsel of shame”

Imagine a branch of government run by ordinary people like you: these everyday people meet, deliberate, and vote on the same issues as the legislature. It is already working in places like Michigan. You will never see voting the same way.

I know you're only kidding Microsoft. I know that you're offering to make something a defalt setting which you've been doing since the mid 1980s, but you never do. Still, we play along. It's a bit like voting really ;)

Politicians divide us because that’s the most effective way to to get our attention. Juries start out trying to solve a common problem. And after they’ve deliberated citizens feel better understood, even if they don’t agree.

The Spanish have a term for the last portion which noone will have for fear of looking greedy “The morsel of shame”

Wanna know why politicians won’t tell you the truth? You wouldn’t vote for them if they did!

It’s commonsense: the rules of the political game need to be kept out of politicians’ hands. But where most democracies did that, the United States did not and is now backsliding on gerrymandering, voter suppression and partisan courts.

The American social scientist Paul Reinsch wrote in 1905: "In colonial affairs, we are in need more of the sense of justice than of benevolence." He quoted an Arab proverb: "One day of justice is better than seventy years of good wishes."  From William Easterly’s Violent Saviours.

Your regular reminder Academia is corrupt. Academics pump out the papers, bring in the research funding while, like Ol Man River, complete travesties of its mission just keep on rolling along. 10 committees are investigating the problem to see what can be done retractionwatch.com/2026/04/27/c...

Getting people interested in good government (like how to educate our kids)? Not so easy when political communications are just a part of the entertainment industry www.ft.com/content/5060...

Aristotle comes out against monopoly capitalism shock! “The man who uses a house judges it better than the builder; the diner judges a banquet better than the cook; the steersman a rudder better than the carpenter.” (Politics III.11, 1282a)

Getting people interested in good government (like how to educate our kids)? Not so easy when political communications are just a part of the entertainment industry www.ft.com/content/5060...

Imagine rerunning the Brexit vote using a citizen assembly. Shortly after the original referendum, a citizen jury met to discuss the issues. After four days, the group swung from 26/24 majority in favour to a 30/20 majority against, roughly the position today.

"Asked to describe a moral dilemma they'd faced, 2/3s of young people couldn’t answer or described problems that are not moral at all, like whether they could afford to rent a certain apartment or whether they had enough quarters to feed the meter at a parking spot." www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/o...

A radical strategy to assert democracy against the dictatorship. But from the centre! Great discussion with my friend Joe Trippi @joetrippi.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6ZV...

Aristotle comes out against monopoly capitalism shock! “The man who uses a house judges it better than the builder; the diner judges a banquet better than the cook; the steersman a rudder better than the carpenter.” (Politics III.11, 1282a)

In early 2020, medical establishments treated Covid like influenza despite contrary evidence. Leaders prioritised public reassurance over facing the scary facts. This reveals a fundamental flaw in systems that value rule-making over genuine problem-solving.

Open competition for power in our politics has its downside. We need some countervailing institutions to slow the rise of psychopaths to the top and to focus democracy on what kind of future we want rather than on which memes can be got to fly.

Competition can be a trap. For centuries, we have designed institutions that run on and reward self-interest, squeezing out the shared centre that actually matters. We either learn to collaborate on a planetary scale or we watch everything we have built fall apart

Lateral Economics has been engaged by Macquarie Point Vision to update my January 2025 report on the cost of the proposed Macquarie Point stadium in Hobart.

Are we hardwired to fail, or are our institutions just designed poorly? History shows that when we build for our "better angels," things actually work. It’s time to move past the contest and start solving problems before it’s too late for all of us.

Ever feel like the system is just a game where the rules don't apply to everyone? When we let partisan interests take over the shared centre, justice disappears and costs blow out. Watch to see why we need a neutral umpire to get back to reality.

Why does every political leader today sound like they’re reading from the exact same PR script? Back in the 70s, leaders actually admitted when they changed their minds or disagreed with their party. Today, it’s all 14-second soundbites and stolen credit.

Are you tired of politicians answering to algorithms? We swim in a toxic swamp of echo chambers and endless news cycles. Uncover the truth about our political landscape and see how a citizens' assembly provides a real solution to this mess.

Really looking forward to JD Vance campaigning for Netanyahu later this year.

How to win an election - The ugly truth You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. Stop falling for the slogans and the media portrayals. Watch how the winning strategy actually forces leaders to ignore "we the people" just to keep their funders happy.

Ever notice how politicians dodge every awkward question during debates? We traded real conversations for pre-rehearsed talking points and zero-sum contests. See why the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debate was one of the last real political conversation.

Stop scrolling for a second and ask yourself: why do some online comments make you so mad? Social media isn't a meritocracy; it’s a clickbait engine fuelled by your anger. Here is how the "wrongness" of the internet traps your brain.

Why does the loudest person in the room always seem to win online? We’ve built a "shoutocracy" that rewards rage over actual merit, but there’s a way to fix the middleware of our democracy. Discover how bridging algorithms can actually help us find common ground again.

Note to self. After everything I say, no matter how bizarre or nonsensical say "Let that sink in". Let that sink in.

Ever wonder what actually happens in a real citizen's jury? People with radically different views listen to each other and despite the initial anger, leave in tears of relief. True democracy is about dialogue, not just winning a contest. Let's make our leaders listen and act.

"Between 2012 and 2022, UK territorial emissions fell by 31 per cent. But the emissions embedded in its consumption fell by a mere 10 per cent. In effect, the UK has shifted emissions elsewhere far more than it has reduced them." @MartinWolf_ www.ft.com/content/86fd...

Note to self. After everything I say, no matter how bizarre or nonsensical say "Let that sink in". Let that sink in.

A radical strategy to assert democracy against the dictatorship. But from the centre! Great discussion with my friend Joe Trippi @joetrippi.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6ZV...

Watch the full interview with Joe Trippi here:

yes and thank you for the excuse to share one of my all-time favorite tweets (from @longwall26.bsky.social)

Most people think democracy is just about voting, but there’s a "depolarisation machine" hidden in our history. By bringing back the jury-style model of representation, we can finally reduce the power of lobbyists and special interests. It’s time to balance the stool again.

Ever feel like politics is just one big, exhausting culture war? Belgium tried something radical by letting 50 randomly selected citizens call the shots on the issues that actually matter. See why they're focusing on real life issues instead of just trying to get in the headlines

Watch the full interview with Joe Trippi here:

Do you ever feel like a fool for still believing in our political system? We’re so used to the contest that we’ve forgotten how to actually talk to each other. Here's why the secret to saving democracy isn't about winning an argument—it’s about changing the DNA of how we disagree

"Consider what conservatives and classical liberals said they believed before 2016. … " oliverhartwich.com/2026/02/27/t...

"If they seem awkward, slightly uncomfortable, even imperfect, you may be surprised by how warm they are in real life. It’s not a universal law, of course. But it’s not a bad starting point." Bang on Politicians' humanity is usually marked by their awkwardness www.crikey.com.au/2026/02/25/j...

Wikipedia works because it is a meritocracy, unlike politics or business. We confuse competition with merit. Competition gives us great tennis players, but does it give us the best leaders? Let us rethink what winning means for society.

This 6 min video from 2018 contains two stories from our history which should be up in lights and which virtually no one knows. youtu.be/5cR96KesAMQ

You wouldn’t let a tennis player call their own lines, so why do we let politicians set their own rules? This is the simple umpire fix that could restore trust in our institutions. It’s time to change how the game is played. We need independent truth, not more partisan fighting.

We force leaders to play a brutal power game to win elections. When Joe Biden stepped down, we missed a huge chance to change the rules. Imagine a system that ignores campaign speeches and uses a Venetian merit system to pick the best candidate. It is time to end this circus.

Find this video on youtube here: