Minipublics beyond representation
First posted on Equality by Lot on Oct 8 Now that minipublics are no longer limited to local level “experiments” but are regularly involved in consequential political occasions, constitutional amendments … Continue reading
To Awaken Democracy
As Democracy Spring and Democracy Awakening begin a week of sit-ins and civil disobedience on Capitol Hill and as your inbox fills up with spam via the End Citizens United … Continue reading
Citizens’ Initiative Reviews: Democracy via Vicarious Deliberation?
Although there has been much talk (or rather speculation) in deliberative democracy circles on the potential and possible pitfalls of “intensive” citizen deliberation–especially on Equality by Lot–there has been little … Continue reading
Debugging the System
A review of Manuel Arriaga’s Rebooting Democracy [A] long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT. Thomas Paine, Common Sense Rebooting Democracy … Continue reading
A Lesson for Michael Moore
[and Noam Chomsky too!] Multimedia is rare on Fila Sophia but the occasion is special. Without looking for conspiracies or evil-doers, without cinema gimmicks, this 45-minute documentary (French with English … Continue reading
The Citizen Jury Illustrated: The Morris Climate Dialogue
A “Citizen Jury” means to embody the informed, face-to-face deliberation of an ideal democracy, not found either in elections or in legislative debates today. Below is a photo illustration of … Continue reading
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