PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY vs REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY
We as citizens of the United States observe politics from afar and the vast majority of us may participate in the political process only to the extent that we go to the polls once a year to vote. We may endeavor to follow the news accounts of our nation's politics as they unfold, and of the consequences those political actions yield, but we have little power to influence our "democratically" elected officials. Perhaps we write an occasional letter to our senator or representative, but we almost inevitably receive a vague and impersonal response explaining why they will vote in our opposition.
Over the decades, our representative democracy has been systematically undermined and has ultimately failed in preserving the well being of the people of this nation. The system that the founding fathers painstakingly devised in order to best serve the interests and the will of the people has been corrupted and the systems of checks and balances on power that they instituted have been stripped away. Most of us accept this reality as being beyond our control and continue to observe, comment, and complain without aspiring to achieving any real change, without any hope of instituting a new system of governance that would instead take directly into account your views, and the views of your neighbors, and would empower you to make real positive change possible in your communities.
This site will attempt to explore in depth the places in the world where people are successfully bringing about that type of change in the face of similar odds, where an alternate form of democracy, which is called participatory or direct democracy, is taking root. Initiative, referendum & recall, community councils, and grassroots organizing are but a few ways in which direct/participatory democracy is achieving great success around the world.
Our system of representative democracy does not admit the voice of the people into congressional halls, the high courts, or the oval office where our rights and our liberties are being sold out from underneath us. Our local leaders and activists in our communities, and even those local elected officials who may have the best of intentions are for the most part powerless to make real positive change happen in our neighborhoods, towns and villages when there is so much corruption from above.
In places like Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Brazil, South Africa, India, and the Phillipines, new experiments in grass roots community based governance are taking place. There is much to be learned from these and other examples of participatory democracy from around the world when we try to examine how this grass-roots based governance could begin to take root here in our own country in order to alter our political system so that it might better serve the American people.
In the hope that one day we can become a nation working together as a united people practicing true democracy as true equals, we open this forum…
Upcoming conference in Tallin on the heels of the expanding use of e-democracy in Estonia. To visit the countries e-consultation site OSALE click here. - Editor
2008 e-Democracy Conference in Talin, Estonia
22.05.2008.
The 2008 eDemocracy conference "Opportunities for Citizen Participation in an Information Society" will be held on June 5th, in the press room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia.
This year we touch upon the opportunities ICT and the Internet provide for citizens to take part in the policy making process and to have a say in political decisions. We introduce the new governmental participation portal OSALE which opens a new way for Estonian people to express their opinion.We are also proud to present a new participation tool, TID+, which, with support of the European Union, is at present being developed and which will be made available to everyone. TID+ is based on the experiences with the Direct Democracy Portal TOM that has been in use in Estonia since 2001.
Last year, on November 29-30 in Skopje, at the “e-Society.Mk 2007” conference organized by the Metamorphosis Foundation, Ms. Nele Leosk, a representative of the Estonian eGovernance Academy presented the portal Tana Otsustan Mina – TOM (Today I Decide) as an example for a good EU practice.
Furthermore, the conference will focus on an analysis of Estonian e-voting experiences and give an overview of future perspectives, plans and developments. We also look forward to hear expert opinions in a panel discussion on whether and to what extent online participation and the New Media influence politics and shape democracy.
The conference is organised by e-Governance Academy together with the State Chancellery and Electoral Committee and is part-financed by the European Commission. Attending is free of charge, but registering is necessary.
More information on the conference and how to register is available on the eGA website.
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