How Dunfermline’s £500 democracy experiment showed politics at its best
A cross-section of local people gathered to work out ways to improve life in Dunfermline. Their ideas have now been backed by £5 million of funding.
If you want to see politics at its very best, don’t go to Holyrood or Westminster. Instead, I recommend the community centre in a once-troubled housing scheme in Dunfermline, where a group of people did something extraordinary, something politics is crying out for.
You might ask, who were these uniquely skilled and experienced politicians and leaders? They were, in fact, the everyday people of Dunfermline.
They exemplified considered and considerate politics. Proved community and human connection is possible in a digitised world. Had vision and ambition with an honest understanding of the trade-offs and risks.
Dunfermline in miniature
This began last summer, when 9,000 households across Dunfermline received invitations to join a citizens’ assembly, with £500 offered in recognition of their time. The payment mattered, it ensured participation wasn’t limited to people with spare time or a pre-existing interest but instead, a genuine cross-section of the community.
Thirty-five people were selected by sortition – random selection designed to reflect the city’s make-up by age, gender, voting and non-voting intention, education level, ethnicity, disability, and neighbourhood.
This balance is not always easy. Graduates often leap at opportunities like this, while those without formal education, whose voices are too often missing in policymaking, are less likely to take part.
However, the Dunfermline Assembly succeeded and became a true mini Dunfermline. Non-voters worked alongside Reform and Green voters; people who were financially comfortable with those who were struggling; lifelong residents alongside newcomers.
Community pride
Over three weekends, the Assembly explored a deceptively simple question: “We all want Dunfermline to be a great place to call home. As our city grows and develops, how do we continue to improve our community for today and tomorrow?”
They focused on two themes familiar to communities across Scotland: community pride and connection, and the city centre and local economy.
Like a jury, they heard from experts, academics, local projects and successful initiatives elsewhere. They took their time examining the issues in detail, combining it with their lived experiences – those who know the city best.
During the final weekend, they developed recommendations and actions. Fife Council’s Local Area Committee is now working with the Assembly to create a plan involving as many local organisations and residents as possible, backed by £5 million in funding.
Quiet but profound
Many participants initially came for the payment, and they deserved to be compensated. Though as the process unfolded, people allowed their deeper feelings to emerge, feelings often buried because they felt powerless, or because witnessing the decline of places like the city centre was painful.
The pride was always there though. What changed was the realisation they could express that pride and care with a genuine power to do something about it, the quiet but profound democratic power of representing the place they call home.
I am delighted that the partners in this work – the Assembly itself, the Electoral Reform Society Scotland, Fife Council, the Scottish Government, and the many community groups and organisations involved – understand that we must show it is not only the rich and powerful who can shape our places.
Through democratic innovations like this one, we can continue the struggle for government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Willie Sullivan is the director of the Electoral Reform Society Scotland
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