Personal Democracy Revolutionaries
Matt Leighninger, Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, Senior Associate of Everyday Democracy and author of "The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule Is Giving Way to Shared Governance - And Why Politics Will Never Be the Same", writes an impassioned blogpost ostensibly to attendees to the Personal Democracy Forum conference, but really to all of us who are interested in making politics more open and accessible to ordinary citizens. His words are certainly relevant to us developing the Australian Citizens’ Parliament project.
Are you democratic revolutionaries or just another interest group?While most noise in America is focussed on the Presidential race, Matt suggests that citizens remain uninfluential, armchair commentators. Instead, he recommends that we work hard on instigating initiatives that really engage citizens in everyday political decision-making, especially at the local level where it can really count.
Making politics more “open” [through the medium of the Internet] 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.
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