Regulating the Future: Harnessing the Power of Digital Citizens

Regulators are facing unprecedented challenges posed by technology, such as artificial intelligence and the internet. Multinational companies, such as Facebook and Google, had grown rapidly in a climate of low regulation and governments are now trying to work out how, and if, they can be regulated.

On October 23, I had the pleasure to be the keynote speaker at ANZSOG’s “Shifting Sands” Regulators Community of Practice Forum in Melbourne, Australia.

I argue that the future of regulation is linked to closing the ‘civic engagement gap’ where too many citizens are effectively shut out of public debate. In in my latest book Lobbying for Change, I detail the various instruments citizens can use to have their voices heard. Citizen-lobbying is the surest means to involve citizens directly in the decision-making process. At a time of growing disenchantment with the democratic system, citizen lobbying transforms mounting distrust into an active democratic virtue. Lobbying should not be a dirty word, it should be for the many not the few.