What is How seeking to do?
Both elections and government processes can be confusing and frustrating.
How’s objectives are:
1. to assist the electoral candidates who will form Jersey’s next States Assembly in identifying:
- how to make better decisions to improve Jersey’s government and economic performance
- how to ensure those improvements are not delayed unnecessarily by government itself.
2. to help voters select the candidates most likely to deliver positive change
Less talk, more action
Many areas of Jersey’s government that need urgent attention. The areas in which How offers proposals to reform government services include:
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- Better government administration, including improved decision-making and accountability, and community support
- Improved representation
- Making positive progress in protecting the environment and adapting to climate-related changes while improving housing supply
Too often government is bogged down by plans to make plans that are no more than wish lists that are passed onto a new administration. Or work on reports that go nowhere.
How started from the concept of a community manifesto in which the electorate would be invited to help tell candidates what needs to be changed and how. However, manifestos too often are no more than wish lists. Like promises and pledges, they will be meaningless if candidates do not take the steps needed to deliver.
A vehicle for change
Proposals for new policies and reforms will not succeed if States Members keep
- avoiding decisions to secure popularity over public interest
- relying on civil servants to make political decisions
- becoming snagged up in bureaucracy
- rejecting potential solutions on the grounds of technicalities without offering constructive amendments
- allowing self-interest to stand in the way of public interest.
At the same time, too often candidates, States Members and voters are unaware of the technical changes that are needed to improve government overall. This means voters usually fail to demand electoral candidates commit to making those changes to earn their votes.
How has sought to change this by creating the How Proposition list, a document which uses extensive research within the public and private sector to inform
- voters
- candidates and
- future States Members
of the technical changes that need to be made to laws, codes of conduct and government structures to overcome the barriers to achieving positive and productive change.
Government is as good as its decisions so proposals in the Proposition List include :
- Simplifying government structures and processes to improve service and delivery
- Improving the knowledge of States Members and government officers to make better-informed decisions
- Improving accountability in government
- Improving ethical standards and measures to improve conduct within government and the States Assembly
- Improving engagement between government and Islanders
You and How
Existing States Members may have the attraction of being familiar with the hoops and pitfalls in getting things done in government yet how many have accepted these systems need to be changed to produce better results? How many simply accept those systems or even know what really needs to be changed to make meaningful progress?
First-time candidates who look promising can fail to deliver. On election, they may find themselves more occupied with learning about the government systems than questioning how those systems need to be changed in order achieve their political ambitions.
You can vote for positive change by supporting candidates who know how to create that change.
