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.
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.
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 (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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How we rework our democracy is part of our evolution as a species -- and, indeed, part of the evolution of the universe.
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.
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).
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."
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.
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.
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)
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.)
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.
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.
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.