"Parliamentary democracy with its free elections can devolve into "fast democracy" that does not take enough time for deliberative discourse."
"But for us to form opinions that are unshakable and fully developed, we must think them through and debate thoroughly with others," ... "That's why we need 'slow democracy,' or deliberative democracy."
"Under 'slow democracy', according to Maruyama, people of different political persuasions accept their differences in discussing matters that directly affect the lives of all citizens, such as nuclear power generation.
Instead of letting just a handful of government officials and nuclear experts - members of the so-called atomic village - call all the shots, it should be up to the public to try to establish a system of 'civilian control' ...".
"... transparency is indispensable to the use of nuclear energy. A country that has no transparency is not a democracy".
Via Genichiro Takahashi: Building 'slow democracy' based on transparency and dialogue.
