Reconstructing Democracy by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harvard University Press

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The projects discussed in the previous sections were initiated by citizens (often with the support of foundations) rather than by governments. They are examples of self-organizing at the level of local communities. But governments can also initiate consultation on particular questions with ordinary citizens, not only on local levels, but also on state or federal levels. In the last several decades, many democratic innovations have been proposed, in academic discussions as well as in politics, and many have also been tested in practice, such as Citizen Councils, Citizens’ Assemblies, deliberative polls, or participatory budgeting. What they have in common is that they are dialogue-based, participatory modes of consultation that accompany and inform the more traditional processes of representative democracy.

Before examining specific examples of such projects, we must look briefly at the wider field of democratic participation and policymaking. In many parts of the Western world, citizens’ declining interest in traditional forms of participation through political parties and elections is countered by a reassuring increase in the significance of new forms of participation. It is no longer sufficient for people to hand over control to political decision makers at each election; they want to join in the conversation and not be reduced to mere onlookers. For them, it is about debating alternatives and reclaiming the scope for political action. More than ever, citizens want to engage in shaping the circumstances of their lives, whether with regard to urban districts, local communities, or regions, or to plans for the public sphere. They are searching for new modes of political participation and demand direct involvement—with increasing success.

Since the 1990s there has been a significant increase in the practice of innovative forms of citizen participation. They have yet to be conclusively defined—in contrast to fully constituted, legally regulated forms of participation such as the consultations that take place in the framework of planning procedures, or the classical mechanisms of direct democracy such as referendums or public petitions conducted at a local authority level.

A considerable number of these new, dialogue-based forms of participation offer proof of this trend—from the Citizens’ Assembly in Ireland (for example, on popular aging or climate change) or the one that promoted electoral reform in British Columbia, Canada, through to the consensus conferences convened in Denmark for the purposes of technological assessment, to local initiatives that supported civic engagement in the policymaking of the Keralan government in India. Such processes, which often involve several rounds and depend on the support of facilitators and, potentially, experts (whether academic or otherwise), are geared toward carving out common policy solutions that incorporate a responsible (or “open”) attitude toward the future—that is, beyond short-term (election campaign) interests. Citizens are increasingly seizing the opportunity to participate in order to articulate their concerns and influence local, regional, or national policy. Additionally, online tools and technologies have become available over the last decade, allowing larger numbers of citizens to mobilize. Although the “participatory revolution” that began in the 1970s has suffered repeated setbacks, fundamentally it has

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