Interactive public political debates

[dodzi]

There is a political program here in Belgium, that airs every Sunday, where representatives of different political parties, but also from NGOs and civil organizations, (political or non-political) experts, random citizens, etc. participate in a debate around an actual political problem.

The content of the debate can vary from strictly political, to the simply societal or technical issues (ex. schools funding, specific laws etc.).

The idea of such a program is to make the politicians interact with the citizens. Politicians give their ideas, their opinions, their official stands, but also their technical expertise ("Rome wasn't built in one day") and their promises. On the other hand, citizens come and talk about their problems, the NGOs and the experts come and talk about the issues, the possible solutions, etc.

The purpose of such a program is to make political debates more accessible to the regular citizens, and to make their content actually matter, instead of the regular international alliances issue...

Of course, it will be interesting to have representatives from opposing parties participate too. And of course, this is a major test to our politicians: it is one thing to simply make press conferences and answer agreed upon questions, and it is another to debate and confront the citizens and experts directly!

[The Brain]

Originally Posted by dodzi

There is a political program here in Belgium, that airs every Sunday, where representatives of different political parties, but also from NGOs and civil organizations, (political or non-political) experts, random citizens, etc. participate in a debate around an actual political problem.

The content of the debate can vary from strictly political, to the simply societal or technical issues (ex. schools funding, specific laws etc.).

The idea of such a program is to make the politicians interact with the citizens. Politicians give their ideas, their opinions, their official stands, but also their technical expertise ("Rome wasn't built in one day") and their promises. On the other hand, citizens come and talk about their problems, the NGOs and the experts come and talk about the issues, the possible solutions, etc.

The purpose of such a program is to make political debates more accessible to the regular citizens, and to make their content actually matter, instead of the regular international alliances issue...

Of course, it will be interesting to have representatives from opposing parties participate too. And of course, this is a major test to our politicians: it is one thing to simply make press conferences and answer agreed upon questions, and it is another to debate and confront the citizens and experts directly!

Really great idea, and if we add to it the audience participation I guess we will see a lot of shoes thrown at some politicians like the Iraqi journalist did to Bush

I would love to hit SG with a Jazma