Only people power can save us from populism | Letters

Timothy Garton Ash has produced an excellent list of safeguards against extremism (My guide to populist-proofing your democracy – before it’s too late, 25 November). Unfortunately, they don’t work in the long term. The finest minds of the Enlightenment devised the checks and balances of the US constitution, and an authoritarian like Donald Trump brushed them aside in two minutes.

Laws and regulations to guarantee good government only work if the people want them to. If they’re not bothered, then no amount of safeguarding is of much use. We could replace the House of Lords with a citizens’ assembly, comprising a randomly chosen cross-section of the public, with membership changing every six months.

An extremist government wanting to, say, abolish judicial independence, would need the approval of three successive sessions of the assembly. Only the people themselves can act as an effective block on extremism – if they want to.
Peter Loschi
Oldham, Greater Manchester

The most obvious way to protect our fragile democratic system is to reform it. It’s been clear for years now that our system of democratic government is no longer fit for its task. We have had a succession of poor governments. When we needed to focus on the long term, short-term events have overwhelmed. When we needed leaders with vision and tenacity, we too easily elected leaders with charisma but little understanding. While China was staking strategic steps towards global dominance and America was flexing its muscles, the UK and the rest of Europe have drifted rudderless to an uncertain destination.

According to books by Ian Dunt and Sam Freedman, the British democratic system is characterised by short-term thinking, lack of expertise and a failure to delegate. It was designed for another, slower-moving and simpler age. Its method of operation needs a complete overhaul if it is to increase its effectiveness. There is no point in protecting something that doesn’t work.
Roger Heppleston
Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire

To Timothy Garton Ash’s seven ways to populist-proof your democracy, I would add one that is more cultural than structural: involve pupils and students in decision-making in their school.

The school is the first social institution outside the family that will reliably influence the way young people live in community – for good or ill. Helping them reflect on concepts such as equity, power, fairness, stereotyping, empathy, tolerance, the potential and limits of democracy, in the context of their daily lives, has immense potential for social learning.

Approaches to young people’s participation in decision-making 30 years ago could be tokenistic but many, where adult commitment, training and support were present, were successful. In some cases, students were given substantial influence, even in the big decisions such as the appointment of staff.

This had benefits for the staff appointed, for the culture of the school and for students. While some of this practice still survives, elsewhere the “exam factory” notion of schooling has squeezed it to destruction.
Rob Hunter
Leicester

Timothy Garton Ash leaves out one vital ingredient from his checklist: accountability between elections. Nobody believes a word politicians say because there is no way of holding them to account when they break their pledges. We need a truly independent office of accountability, with real teeth to assess the credibility of electoral promises and, equally important, monitor their delivery.

A citizens’ assembly could decide on the penalties that would be imposed for discarding pledges without an explanation that would satisfy the regulator. If we started treating manifesto promises as a contract that involved penalties for non-performance, maybe the promises themselves might be more realistic.
Peter Buckman
Little Tew, Oxfordshire

Timothy Garton Ash says that constitutional monarchy is “a bulwark of democracy”. This is not necessarily so. Victor Emmanuel III supported Mussolini, Alfonso XIII supported Primo de Rivera, and Edward VIII did his best to support Hitler.
Dr Piers Brendon
Cambridge