The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule Is Giving Way to Shared Governance -- and Why Politics Will Never Be the Same

Foreword

xiii Foreword by U. S. Senator Bill Bradley In 1995, I learned firsthand about an idea that was stirring among public officials and community organizers across America. Shortly after O. J. Simpson ’s acquittal, Los Angeles city officials convened “Days of Dialogue” to give people throughout the city an opportunity to share their views on the complex and intensely personal topic of race relations. I was invited to sit in on a session at a drug rehabilitation center, where a member of the Nation of Islam served as an evenhanded facilitator, making sure everyone had a chance to speak. Seeing the willingness of people to come together amid highly charged circumstances to talk about their lives, their fears, and their hopes made a deep impression on me. I was moved by the participants’ civility and honesty, and I believe these discussions may have helped avert a wave of violence like the one that accompanied the 1992 Rodney King verdicts. Just as important, the dialogues gave participants a much-needed chance to talk plainly about racism and racial division with people from backgrounds different from their own. The Days of Dialogue—which expanded to take place nationally in the late 1990s—were an early example of the sort of civic engagement Matt Leighninger describes throughout The Next Form of Democracy. In this book, Leighninger chronicles a movement that is still too new to have a name (although groups like the National League of Cities refer to it as “democratic governance”). The phenomenon—which is taking shape across the country in many different ways—is fueled by the notion that public life is too important to be left solely to the professionals. When we create real, ongoing opportunities for all sorts of people to work together and to become active citizens in meaningful ways, we strengthen our communities and improve relationships between public servants and those they serve. xiv The Next Form of Democracy Leighninger brings outstanding credentials to his task of documenting the rise of democratic governance. Through his work with the Study Circles Resource Center, the National League of Cities, and many other civic organizations, Leighninger has helped hundreds of communities in forty states launch local efforts to bring citizens to the table on many issues, including education, racism and race relations, criminal justice, and growth and development. The stories he tells are rooted in his own experience— he really knows these people and has worked side-by-side with many of them. He has learned why civic engagement initiatives work—and how they sometimes fail. Drawing on this experience, he describes ways that local organizers have made room for the talents and passions of all citizens, not just the traditional power brokers. Leighninger’s stories illuminate the highest principles of collective life in the context of real communities and challenging circumstances. That is why this book conveys so much hope. Too often, public officials and other organizers try to sort citizens into categories—“seven different narrow definitions of what citizens ought to be and do,” as Leighninger puts it. People may be viewed solely as voters, or as “consumers” of public services, or as volunteers, social beings, advisors , dispossessed people, or public intellectuals who can help deliberate and explain issues of the day. Leighninger explains how these narrow definitions lead to the failure of many citizen involvement efforts, and argues that successful projects embrace a more holistic view of citizenship. In the best examples, Americans become true partners in our democracy, filling a range of civic roles in “a heterogeneous, candid, cooperative culture” of ongoing dialogue and opportunities to work for change. I have described American society as a three-legged stool, where government and the private sector provide two legs, and the third is anchored by civil society—our shared institutions, including schools, churches, and community organizations. The best way for local communities to tackle our toughest problems is through innovative collaboration among all three sectors. Leighninger describes how democratic governance points the way to a more sustained, creative interplay among the three, fueled by the voices and commitment of citizens. How do we get there? Leighninger doesn’t ignore the challenges posed by these new, more open and participatory forms of democracy, and he raises many intriguing questions about whether hands-on democratic governance is compatible with bureaucratic realities, partisan politics, technology , and ever-growing constraints on people’s time. But he shows how, by continually tapping into citizens’ energy and common sense, officials [18.223.0...