Case Study: Make Democracy Better – Springtide2019-10-28T06:08:23-07:00

Case Study

Make Democracy Better

SPRINGTIDE COLLECTIVE, NOVA SCOTIA

Long Case Study
News Coverage

Need

Bridge the gap between Nova Scotians and their democratic institutions by creating an action plan for a better democracy

Outcome

A discussion paper and publicly-validated action plan for lobbying Nova Scotia’s provincial government

There is a growing movement for electoral reform in the province of Nova Scotia and the non-profit Springtide Collective is at the lead. Springtide used Ethelo to engage several hundred Nova Scotians in evaluating different options for democratic reform. Ideas proposed ranged from instituting term limits for provincially elected officials, to lowering the voting age, and changing the voting system. After floating close to twenty ideas, the results of Ethelo then became the basis of the organization’s research priorities and deep exploration of specific policy options, based on the proposals participants expressed most interest in exploring further.

Ethelo provides a mechanism to capture an incredible number of possibilities in a handful of simple questions. This means participants in the decision are able to see what the impact of certain decisions is, and enables us to quickly eliminate many unpopular alternatives, and focus on the changes that will satisfy the most people.

Mark Coffin
President
Springtide Collective