Democracy is Participatory Democracy
Real democracy is participatory. It is a doing we must do or it does not exist for us. I feel uncomfortable using the term "participatory democracy" because democracy means government by the people and not so long ago we were clear about that.
This piece is directed mostly to American citizens. Many of them once believed that Americans could take care of themselves together and could govern themselves. Now some of them are beginning to think can they can revive that belief and forgotten knowledge. Some believe that is never too late. Others believe that it is already to late. Still, even you may find in democracy something interesting or even useful.
When the United States was founded, mostly by Europeans, the idea of a republic was popular. Some thought republicanism was a good step toward democracy. Most educated Europeans knew quite a bit about ancient Greek democracy and thought that it could be a fine way for a populus to care for itself. Most of those that Americans still call their founding fathers thought so to. However, many of them believed that the present people were not ready to handle a democracy.
A republic with democracy in mind
Many of those who began to migrate to the New World felt that kings or a "noble" oligarchy was not a rule for them. Many of them knew of republicanism was for a rule that was not for rule by any particular church and not by king or nobility. Such rule in much of Europe was becoming unpopular there for good reason. It seemed more painful than practical for many. Popular republicanism was also against such rule. However, among them it was not clear if republicanism was not for rule by the people. Many knew the early Roman Republic was pretty democratic, but many of the public was not well up on the nature of Greek or early Roman governance. That was the state of early American republicanism. Some people had the notion that once the unpopular rule was out "we" would rule. Significant numbers of people thought "We can take care of ourselves." But their definition of we was not clear neither was notion of how self care was to be done together.
However the notion of citizenship came up and the notion of ''representative'' democracy came up often as a part of modern republicanism of the time. In our new republic interested parties thought. We thought that we would select representatives to find ways to govern as we wish, ways to do as we wanted. This was probably the largest consensus of the republican ideas of the founding fathers and as close as we could get to democracy at the time.
A written constitution
The founding fathers decided to provide us with a constitution. We did not contest that. It turned out to provide us with a pretty good organization and set of laws. With it we could, among other things, we could check out to see how we were doing. Many of us were not very clear about what this "we" business included. Many felt it meant freedom from church and king. Some felt that it meant freedom to do whatever we wanted to do, including nothing. We began doing a fair job of teaching our children and one another about republican governance and about some notions of democracy.
Imperialism and Empire
But very soon we began to develop militarily and economically and felt some joy in this. We began to slip into imperialism without much awareness of doing so. We did not see that it was not a good fit for republicanism. Some of us began to note that oligarchies were forming among us, but we seemed to be doing well. We felt well and strong and even wealthy. We were doing well. We scarcely noticed that some of freedoms and powers were endangered.
We did not notice that we were forgetting about being responsible for the care of ourselves together and about the uses of democracy. We began to take a little note that some of us were much more wealthy than others. We began to teach our children and to let them be taught much more about how to earn money and less and less about how to govern ourselves. We had good reasons for doing what we did, but we did not continue to work a republic that was not an oligarchy. We were again getting ruled by a few others, but were still pretty comfy.
Some did begin to get nervous about our republic and to call it a democracy. They did not see that we had become less of a republic rather than becoming more democratic.
They seem to think democracy meant freedom without responsibilities. Our children less and less either about the nature of a republic or a democracy. Still there remain memories, knowledge, and practices about of democracy. Even so there are indications that we may being left with a failing empire.
There is much we can do
We can practice taking care of ourselves and better yet taking care of ourselves together. We can make decisions about doing so. But how many will really decided to practice taking better care of ourselves together? I see a will to do so among us, but it does not look strong.
We can communicate with each other about what we have the will to do together and try to nurture that will. We can find existen doings of togetherness, republicanism, and democracy and learn about them. There are examples of republican and democratic governance which we can observe and learn from. Much is possible.
We can organize. To do well, we must organize. Citizens need to practice organization. By organizing we gain the benefit of our numbers. The more the merrier and the greater or effectiveness.
Our government
In our federal government it is possible for us to keep enough track of our representatives in their collective and individual doings. We can also keep a pretty good eye on the doings of the rest of our government. Of course, any one of us cannot do it all ourself. One of us can't do it alone.That is why we cooperate to do so. That is the reason citizens practice organization. There are now a significant number of us that we have the resources to promptly know what our own representatives are doing and to give them prompt instructions as to what to do for us and what they are to avoid doing. Even so, if we do not use our resources well, they can be lost. With our modern communication technology and our appropriate organization, we can easily do that.
However, we will need to learn to give our representatives abundant and appropriate support along with sufficient vigilance. There are so many of us that no one person that no one person ever feel overburdened. We do need to practice organization and to practice being alert to learning effect effective methods of doing so. The quality of our citizenship calls for our good and ongoing co-operation skills and a common understanding of our government.
Ways of governance.
We have chosen the way represented in our Constitution. To many of us that constitution represents a tendency to democracy. Citizen Assemblies represents an example of that tendency. It is a movement toward effective citizen direct participation in democracy. These days it has become necessary to remind citizens that true democracy is one of active governance of all the people. There is some evidence that such Assemblies can move us toward governing ourselves, that they can help us move toward effective co-operation and conditions which we desire. That there is current evidence that we can, as Daniel Stid has written and I interpret here, bring true and and representative citizen perspectives to bear on policy making; that we can refine our opinions through informed deliberations and judgement. Sounds like our improved governance calls for some improvement in our communication and our cooperation.
So improvement in our governance would call for our learning to better help our Representatives to do that which we elect them to do and to remind and encourage them dailly if necessary. Of course the Executive Branch is helping us to make sure that what we have ordered is getting done, and the Judiciary Branch is letting us know whether, or not, all is being done in accord with our Constitution. Together we can, with some ease and persistence, improve our governance and help our elected Representatives do well making our laws and keeping them straight. It seems there are many who believe we can come to better work our well designed government. There is work to be done. With enough work we can learn more good governance and improved citizen activity as we practice our participation together.
Citizen Assemblies is one organization working out ways to carry out that which many are suggesting these days. When an organization like Public Assemblies interests you, you are free to check it out. There is much online and elsewhere about ways of keeping our governance good. One way we can have better governance is by showing up where people are doing or trying to practice governance. You can learn much by spending a bit of time at a time and place where government is done. A meeting of a place like Citizen Assemblies is a way to start. Itis possible to find a way to participate in cooperative governance, in where it is done, taught, or being discussed. You could learn something which interests you at a local school board meeting. Just show up.
You can tell us here about that which you find out. We can co-operate.
I think that the Citizen's Assembly idea got started in England got active in England. spread to Ireland, then to France, and on to the U. S. and beyond. Ireland sort of set the pace. Not all Assemblies relate to the federal level of. For example, in the U.S, they seem to be more active at the state level.That's about it for me now. When you find interesting info or doings related to democracy leaning governance, please feel free to tell us about it. If you just want more, tell me so and I will try to provide more. So, here you can share what you learn or return here to learn some more. Ways for us to democratically cooperate effectively in governance are golden.
Thank you for showing up, And Reading.
Richard