· Are you a democratic revolutionary? ·
This week, the Personal Democracy Forum (PdF) was held in the US. There is plenty of news online about what was discussed so I'm not going to cover old ground ... except to point this out: An Open Letter to PdF Participants by Matt Leighninger, on techPresident. I'm just publishing what I think are the most salient points (apologies Matt):
...local officials and other kinds of leaders (including online organizers and activists) are attempting many different civic experiments ... to help their communities function more democratically and more effectively.
The best examples of these efforts employ four successful principles:
- They recruit people by reaching out through the various groups and organizations to which they belong, in order to assemble a large and diverse "critical mass" of citizens.
- They involve those citizens in a combination of small- and large-group discussions: structured, facilitated small groups (either online or face-to-face or both) for informed, deliberative dialogue; and large forums for amplifying shared conclusions and moving from talk to action.
- They give the people who participate the opportunity to compare values and experiences, and to consider a range of views and policy options.
- They effect change in a number of ways: by applying citizen input to policy and planning decisions; by encouraging change within organizations and institutions; by creating teams to work on particular action ideas; by inspiring and connecting individual volunteers; or all of the above.
...simply making more information available online, and providing more arenas for people to comment on it, is unlikely to produce changes ...
Online commentators could simply become another chattering class, another set of voices trying to pressure public officials and dig out damning details. Without attending to the other elements of successful democratic governance – recruitment, deliberation, facilitation, action planning, etc. – the democratic impact of the new technology may be positive but limited.
Making politics more "open" is a terrific priority – but if that’s all you do, then you’ll just be making a space for yourselves at the political table and not welcoming in the people with less time, less education, less confidence, less faith in government and community, and/or a lower level of technological skills.
Your response to this may be: "So what! We’re opening things up – if people don’t care enough to participate, we’ll govern without them!" If so, it would be helpful to say this now; it would clarify that online commentators and activists constitute a powerful new interest group in politics.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think that’s what you want. The alternative – clarifying the role you want to play as democratic revolutionaries – will require more attention to what is happening on the ground in local politics, not just what is happening in the ether of the presidential campaign.
I've heard a lot of winging about politicians not engaging the public online. I even do it myself occasionally. But recently I've realised that we practitioners need to take a leadership role and get politicians thinking about how they might engage the public in the way that suits all: politicians and their staffers, government departments and citizens. Otherwise it may be a very long time until we see a participatory democracy in this country. So ... are you going to be a democratic revolutionary and join me on this journey?
Thursday June 26, 2008
Categories: Campaigning Leadership
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