In search of greater democracy

After years of often inconclusive argument and debate over the composition of the States and what used to be rather grandly described as the ‘machinery of government’, we finally appear to be approaching some kind of watershed from which a period of relative stability may ensue.

This situation results from the progress of two related reviews, one by an Electoral Commission considering the make-up of the Assembly and another by a sub-committee of the Privileges and Procedures Committee looking at possible improvements to the system of ministerial government which, far from being the shining solution that was claimed in advance of its introduction almost seven years ago, has left the States divided, confused and even more removed from the people than before, with little or no discernible improvement in efficiency.

This otherwise slightly baffling twin-track approach gives grounds for some optimism partly because it applies to an intellectual problem two of the most powerful intellects in the States, those of Assistant Chief Minister Sir Philip Bailhache and St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft who respectively head the two projects, and partly because the Privileges brief encompasses some of the questions about Jersey’s democratic deficit which are not included in the commission’s remit.

With no sign of any significant public demand to remove the Constables from the States, the commission may in the end find itself essentially juggling permutations of Senators and Deputies on the head of a pin as they refine their conclusions.

The Privileges sub-committee, meanwhile, can achieve clearer progress towards greater political accountability and unity with common sense recommendations such as a requirement for more decision-sharing between ministers, hire-and-fire powers for the Chief Minister, the collaborative participation of assistant ministers in the Scrutiny process and a communications policy which puts the public first.

Most of the dilemmas and complexities would, of course, simply fade away if Jersey were to develop its own system of party politics, or at least clearly identifiable political alliances at election times. Such a development would no doubt bring new problems of its own but it would at least help to address the primary objective which should inform the current deliberations but is always at risk of being lost in a haze of specialised minutiae.

That objective must simply be to find ways of ensuring that, when Jersey electors cast their votes, they can do so with some degree of certainty that they might actually get to see the manifesto aims they voted for being turned into practical reality.