Living Democracy

Description

By Frances Moore Lappé:

" An eco-mind, focusing on context, suggests that humans may well have what it takes to create forms of democracy better aligned with our nature because they embody the above three essential characteristics—the dispersion of power, transparency, and mutual accountability—at every level of social organization. They thus enable societies to make decisions serving shared and long-term interests.

In other words, “thinking like an ecosystem” and applying it to our social reality we can perceive the possibility of what I call Living Democracy—now appearing as perhaps the next historical stage of democracy. It begins as we admit that democracy understood as “elections plus a market” is not working. Democracy as a distant political structure, fixed and finished, cannot work because it allows the entrenchment of the very conditions known to bring out our worst and fails to meet the human need for power, meaning, and connection.

We realize that what best reflects and meets human needs is instead democracy understood as a way of life—not something we inherit, or build once and for all, but what we continuously create together.8 Living Democracy suggests not a set system but a set of system values and conditions—the dispersion of power, transparency, and mutual accountability—that work across all dimensions of public life, from our workplaces to our schools. It builds from the insight that today’s problems are too complex, interwoven, and pervasive to be solved from the top down. They require the ingenuity, insights, experience, and “buy-in” of those most directly affected by the problems we face.

Living Democracy appreciates that we may not be born with the skills of deliberative problem-solving required to maintain the three conditions essential to bring out our best, but almost all of us have the capacity to learn them.

The term Living Democracy suggests democracy as both a lived experience and an evolving, organic reality itself—“easily lost but never finally won,” in the words of the first African-American federal judge William Hastie.

But are we capable? many might ask.

Didn’t human beings evolve within strict hierarchies, vestiges of which linger today in gender, class, and caste power structures? Actually, anthropologists paint a different picture: that, during 95 percent of our evolution, humans lived in highly egalitarian tribes. We kept them that way through counter-dominance strategies because we humans thrive best when we work together, not under the thumb of one strong man." (http://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/node/22191)

Characteristics

By Frances Moore Lappé:

"And what does this emergent Living Democracy look and feel like? Its values infuse every dimension of community life:

Education life. A Living Democracy perspective emphasizes that in addition to quality education in academic subjects, citizens from the earliest ages have the opportunity to learn and practice the arts of democracy—e.g., listening, mediation, negotiation, and more—and these arts are afforded the same priority as reading and writing. As part of learning such public arts, students also have plentiful opportunity to engage in community problem-solving through “apprentice citizenship.” In the U.S. an exemplar incorporating the democratic arts into student learning is the KIDS Consortium. Another example is taking hold in dozens of countries in which children learn the art of mediating disputes among themselves, rather than turning to an authority to solve the problem for them, or fighting.11

Economic life. With an eco-mind, economic life is no longer bound up by the fiction of a “free market,” so it is possible to create values boundaries around the market to keep it fair, open, and aligned with nature’s laws. (Perhaps a free market is best redefined as one in which all are free to participate in it because it is kept fair and accessible.) Moreover, we are able to see a strong rationale for going beyond the goal of fair distribution to embrace as well that of fair production; for it fulfills the core human need for agency. Fair production suggests opportunities for people to participate in coproduction via cooperatives, for example, and other forms of co-ownership. Already, cooperatives of all types worldwide enjoy many more members, a billion, than there are people who own shares in publicly traded companies.12 They produce 20 percent more jobs than do multinational corporations.13 In rural India, for example, 67 percent of consumer needs are met by cooperatives.12

Political life and civic life. An implication of Living Democracy’s participatory, trust-enhancing culture is that society’s political development involves much more than fair elections understood as honest balloting. Living Democracy suggests, for example, rules that prevent the influence of concentrated private wealth and corporations in campaigns and legislative decisions, along with election rules barring advertising and ensuring candidates’ fair access to media and other public forums. In this way, all candidates can be heard and all citizens can hear and discuss a range of views.

The International Institute for Development has documented how democratic institutions in West Africa have helped support more ecologically sustainable farming practices.

Fair elections and formal political decision-making accountable to citizens—not private interests—are but one essential ingredient. Living Democracy suggests multiple avenues for citizen engagement and empowerment. Effective models emerging worldwide include citizen juries that, for example, in the Global South have brought diverse interests together to come to judgment on the direction of agricultural development, leading to strengthening ecological farming. The deliberative poll is another form of more direct engagement: In Japan, in 2012, this practice helped move the government to adopt the goal of ending all reliance on nuclear power before 2040. And in Texas, a deliberative poll used by utility companies helped the state become a leader in wind power. Participedia.net, created by Harvard democracy theorist Archon Fung, is a source for exemplars of Living Democracy

In Living Democracy, citizens also become active co-creators of knowledge: Examples include citizen water monitors, responsible for gathering water-quality data now in 77 countries.16 Citizens also contribute to community well-being by sharing their knowledge and monitoring well-being, as, for example, Nepal’s community health volunteers who advise pregnant women and offer other critical health-related support." (http://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/node/22191)