Table of Contents
Innovation resources
1 2 next » (27)1 2 next » (27)Accurate Democracy ()If we understand that different sorts of voting are appropriate for different situations, we can design "ensemble" legislative bodies that are inclusive, well centered, and decisive in their creation of policies that enhance the quality of life for the whole community.
Alternative Indicators ()When people ask how a country or region is doing, the answer -- especially on popular news venues -- tends to focus exclusively on the economy, or more particularly the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The GDP fails to even reflect the health of the economy, but what we really need is far richer and more whole feedback about how we are doing economically, socially and ecologically. Many new indicators have been researched and proposed in recent decades.
Anticipatory democracy ()Anticipatory democracy is the public's active, conscious engagement in collectively shaping the future of their community, state or nation. It is usually applied to instances where future-visioning processes or telecommunications technologies are being used to support or shape public engagement.
Approval voting ()Voters vote for as many candidates as they wish. The candidate with the most votes wins. The winner is therefore approved of -- at least to some extent -- by a significant majority of voters.
Asset-Based Community Development ()Communities can grow stronger by exploring and organizing all the gifts that citizens and associations (formal and informal) can bring to their community life, rather than by treating people as problems and clients.
Borda count voting ()Voters rate available candidates in order of preference. Their votes are then weighted, and the weighted votes added up. The candidate with the highest total wins.
Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators ()Here are detailed, sensible ways to measure a dozen diverse aspects of our national well-being, so we as citizens can tell if things are getting better or worse, and take action. (See also Redefining Progress)
Campaign Finance Reform ()There are many ways to change electoral systems so that it is harder for money -- especially large corporations -- to unduly influence elections and the activities of elected officials. This site compares a number of them and provides excellent liinks to other groups concerned. (Destination Democracy was The Benton Foundation's superlative exploration of the trade-offs involved in many approaches to Campaign Finance Reform. The site is gone, that link is via The Wayback Machine.)
Candidate debates, open ()If citizens can't hear a candidate's views, they can't judge whether to vote for them. Debates are typically organized by major parties and exclude smaller parties' candidates. This could and should change.
Citizen Consensus Councils ()Diverse citizens are convened to seek, with the help of professional facilitation, shared understandings, solutions and wisdom about social concerns. Their unanimous conclusions are publicized to their entire community or country. Examples include Danish Citizen Technology Panels, Wisdom Councils, and The People's Verdict.
Citizen Councilor Groups ()This proposal suggests officially appointing volunteer citizens to gather in small study circles in their homes, workplaces or public gathering spots to study and discuss issues of concern to public officials and then advise those officials on those issues.
Citizen Initiative Review ()For each ballot initiative, a panel of randomly-selected and demographically-balanced voters is brought together for several days to fairly evaluate it. They hear directly from campaigns for and against the measure, and from policy experts. Their vote, statements for and against, and consensus statements as a whole, are included in the official voters' pamphlet.
Citizens Juries ()Citizens juries involve a randomly selected and demographically representative panel of citizens meeting for four or five days to carefully examine an issue of public significance, hearing from a variety of expert witnesses and presenting their recommendations to the public.
Civic Journalism ()Civic Journalism attempts to engage people in public life by finding out what they are concerned about, providing them with balanced information about the issues involved, getting them talking about those issues, and reflecting what they say back to the larger community in broadcast, print and online media.
Conscious democracy ()(also known as Reflective Democracy)
A society can be more wide awake and intelligent -- not only individually, but collectively. Things can be set up to empower informed citizens to make self-determined choices together. By creatively including all viewpoints and learning from errors a conscious democracy can confidently respond to (and anticipate) changing conditions.
Consensus Councils ()Consensus Councils bring together the full diversity of stakeholders around a contentious issue to agree on recommendations to policy-makers. Early in the 00s, these existed only in Montana and North Dakota, but a number of other states have them now, and a United States Consensus Council has formed.
Consensus process ()How do we start with our actual diversity and weave it into something that makes sense for all of us?
Danish Citizen Technology Panels ()About once a year, the Danish government convenes an official panel of ordinary citizens to investigate some controversial technical issue, cross-examine experts, and come to consensus about policy recommendations for their parliament and their fellow citizens.
(aka Consensus Conferences)
Deliberative Democracy ()Deliberative democracy is outlined, and criticial issues explored, in this brief, dense, but clear academic review, "Is Face-to-Face Citizen Deliberation a Luxury or a Necessity for Democracy?" by Dr. John Gastil.
Deliberative Inclusionary Processes ()Deliberative Inclusionary Processes (DIPs) of many different types are being used in hundreds of instances around the world to involve the public in environmental decision-making. This report describes 35 varieties and reviews many important issues surrounding their use.
Organization resources
America Speaks ()America Speaks organizes large-scale forums engaging thousands of citizens -- both face-to-face and through telecommunications links -- integrated with laptop-computer and keypad-polling technologies -- to deliberate on public issues and provide input to shape government policies.
Americans Talk Issues Foundation ()Americans Talk Issues Foundation (ATIF) finds that scientifically random telephone polls sampling a national statistical cross section of one thousand Americans can often identify a genuine "wisdom of the people" — farsighted, globally aware policy alternatives not offered by either political party or any mainstream political figures, experts, or pundits.
Asset-Based Community Development Institute ()Communities can grow stronger by exploring and organizing all the gifts that citizens and associations (formal and informal) can bring to their community life, rather than by treating people as problems and clients.
Awakening Technology ()Trudy and Peter Johnson-Lenz, who coined the terms "groupware" and "using diversity creatively", have for decades advocated bridging humans and technology to faciltate collaborative exploration, learning and work. Their latest collaborative inquiry on Practicing Our Wisdom Together in Cyberspace explores dozens of questions vital to building a wiser democracy.
Chaordic Commons ()Founded by Visa co-founder Dee Hock, who combined elements of uncontrolled creative chaos and orderly common purposes and principles to help communities and organizations self-organize.
Civic Practices Network ()Dozens of organizations with practical approaches to enhancing civic life have banded together to share "best practices" with each other and you.
Community Initatives ()Community Initiatives provides resources and services to help communities organize themselves for enhanced quality of life. Their site has a great selection of resources.
Deliberative Democracy Consortium ()A professional affiliation of researchers and practitioners linked to the growing movement of deliberative democracy. They develop relevant theory, innovative practices, increased capacity and real-world applications of deliberative democracy.
Demos ()A U.S. national research and advocacy organization focusing on electoral reform and sharing economic opportunity more broadly.
Green America ()Q: What if consumers, investors, employers and employees all knew they were citizens first, and that their economic actions had real impact on real people, communities and the world? A: They'd exercise tremendous power for a better world. Co-op America empowers all forms of economic citizenship.
National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation ()NCDD offers excellent resources on dialogue and deliberation of all kinds, as well as news, a calendar and shop talk for the community of practitioners and leaders in dialogue and civic engagement. They also organize a series of conferences bringing together people in the field.
The Center for Visionary Leadership ()This values-based, non-partisan, non-denominational organization is helping an expanding network of spiritually-oriented voters and social innovators to successfully apply spiritual principles to tough social problems and effective citizenship.
The Jefferson Center ()...for New Democratic Processes
Citizens juries involve a randomly selected and demographically representative panel of citizens meeting for four or five days to carefully examine an issue of public significance, hearing from a variety of expert witnesses and presenting their recommendations to the public.
Event resources
Bioneers ()A remarkable network and annual conference where vision and practice meet in the service of life. Paul Hawken calls it "central to the re-imagination of what it means to be human."
Book resources
Awakening Earth ()How we rework our democracy is part of our evolution as a species -- and, indeed, part of the evolution of the universe.
Beyond Left and Right ()It is time to move public problem-solving from political professionals back into our individual and community lives. Political labels like "Left" and "Right" obscure more significant differences like those in both liberal and conservative camps who advocate "Order" (centralization) or "Freedom" (decentralization).
By Popular Demand ()Citizen panels are the seed from which the garden of effective deliberative democracy can grow. Here are five ways to use citizen panels to establish real answerability in electoral politics and the legislative process.
Collaborative Leadership ()Here's how to use collaborative process to generate civic will that can break through bureaucratic and and legislative gridlock to solve tough community problems (overview and examples available in this interview). Augmented and updated with practical advice in the Collaborative Leadership Fieldbook.
subtitled: How Citizens and Civic Leaders Can Make a Difference
Creating a World that Works for All ()Poor, black, and radical, he knew the world didn't work for black people. Then he realized it didn't work for poor people of every color. But then he noticed it didn't work for middle-class people, either. When he found out The Mess we live in even degraded rich people, he broke through to some really interesting insights and experiences...
Creating Community Anywhere ()Without community, democracy is empty. M. Scott Peck, author of another classic on community, The Different Drum, calls this "The most comprehensive book I know of about the community movement."
Cultural Creatives ()50 million people in the U.S. (and more around the world) -- liberal, conservative and beyond -- are creating the next wave of civilization, barely aware that they are all doing it together. If they woke up to that fact, democratic innovation would accelerate....
The Change Handbook ()This updated second edition details 61 group/organizational practices that could empower our public life. Each method has at least a five year track record; provides dramatic results with a moderate amount of time and resources; involves people in a meaningful way; and provides a means to discover and share information.
subtitled: The Definitive Resource on Today's Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems
Article resources
Co-Intelligence and the Holistic Politics of Community Self-Organization ()Can the principles of ecosystem design be used to help a human community organize itself without top-down leadership? It turns out there are many tools to help us do this...
Deep Democracy and Community Wisdom ()Given adequate group processes, a community's decisions will always tend to be wiser than an individual's by integrating a wide variety of viewpoints, which ameliorates blind spots.
Democracy: A Social Power Analysis ()Demosophia ()The complexity of modern problems requires that we move from "the power of the people" -- which is the Greek meaning of the word democracy -- to the "wisdom of the people", or demosophia.
The People's Verdict ()Canada's Maclean's experiment: Could a dozen Canadians selected for their differences and meeting in the media spotlight for three days, come up with a common vision for the future of their country?