Building a Democracy for the 21st Century On 26th April the Electoral Reform Society held a conference in Edinburgh called A Scottish Spring with a range of excellent speakers covering topics such as the rise of polarisation in democracy, Scottish public opinion, Civic and local democracy in Scotland , engagement and debate. Indypodcasters Fiona and Marlene were there and very much enjoyed the discussions and presentations. It was a full day event so we weren't able to film every session in its entirety but these are some of our particular highlights of the day:

00:03:00 Willie Sullivan, ERS Senior Director in conversation with Professor Nicola McEwen, Director of the Centre for Public Policy

00:15:16 Marlene's question

00:16:40 Mark Diffley provides an overview of Scottish public opinion including exclusive polling commissioned for the conference

00:31:00 Esther Roberton, former Co-ordinator of the Scottish Constitutional Convention on the aspirations for the Scottish Parliament and how well it has lived up to those

00:40:17 Pauline Smith, Chief Executive, Development Trusts Association Scotland on local democracy

00:45:00 Mark Drakeford, former First Minister of Wales on alternative forms of democracy for the Uk

#democracy #scottishpolitics #electoralreform

Find our previous episode on building a local democracy in Scotland here https://yescowal.podbean.com/e/building-a-local-scotland/

find out more about the Electoral Reform Society here https://electoral-reform.org.uk/ers-scotland/

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Inspired by Kevin MacLeod