The Deliberative Democracy Consortium

As always, a special thanks to everyone who submitted items for this month's eBulletin. Please note there are new items at the Deliberative Democracy Blog (http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/blog/), including some thoughts on civic engagement by Peter Levine and reflections on "The Next Form of Democracy" by reader Michael Johnson. Would you like to contribute to the DDC blog email editor@deliberative-democracy.net.

Also, please help us expand our circulation and the visibility of public deliberation throughout the world. Encourage colleagues and friends in you network to subscribe:http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/ebulletin/

Best regards,
lars
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lars hasselblad torres
editor, ddc ebulletin

1 | Whistler Forum Launches New Online Community to Expand Global Leadership Network
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The Whistler Forum for Leadership and Dialogue, a charitable, non-profit organization based in British Columbia, is joining the IGLOO network (International Governance Leaders and Organizations Online) to better serve its mission and engage its members and partners world-wide. Now empowered with an online community, Whistler Forum expects to expand it reach and deepen its ties to network members as it promotes the power of dialogue and collaborative leadership in government, business and civil society. This handsome, new, engagement-oriented website replaces the previous stand-along home of the Whistler Forum.

Learn more about the Whistler Forum online at: http://www.whistlerforum.com

2 | Wikipedia Entry for Venezuelan Community Councils
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Thanks to Jason Diceman of Co-op Tools, wikipedia now has a current, detailed description of the Venezuelan Communal Councils. Here is an excerpt from the entry:

"In April 2006 the Venezuelan government passed The Law of Communal Councils (consejo comunales) which empowers local citizens to form neighbourhood based elected councils that initiate and oversee local policies and projects towards community development. Communal councils convene and coordinate existing community organizations as well as promote the creation of new work committees, cooperatives and projects as needed in defence of collective interests and the integral development of the community.

Communal councils are new model in chain of experiments and parallel efforts towards extreme participatory democracy and a new form of socialism under the banner of the Bolivarian Revolution lead by popularly elected Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Thousands of councils have already formed throughout the country and billions of dollars have been distributed to support their efforts."

To read the full text, please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_Communal_Councils

To learn more about Jason Diceman and the work of Co-op Tools, please visit: http://www.jasondiceman.ca and http://www.jasondiceman.ca

3  Critical Conversations on Civic Issues: Faculty & Film Series at the University of Maryland
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New social movements in Asia and around the world are redrawing national boundaries and challenging the economic and social forces promoting globalization that are eroding vibrant cultural heritages, ecological systems, human rights regimes and democratic societies. What are the implications of these social movements for both rethinking and reinvigorating democracy and governance in the 21st century?

This question will be discussed on Monday, April 9 as the University of Maryland an evening with Mr Smitu Kothari on the topic of, "Rethinking Democracy & Governance: A Social Movement Perspective." Mr. Smitu Kothari is Executive Director of Intercultural Resources a leading civil society center in Delhi, India that promotes exchange between non-party political formations, concerned scholars and other citizens from India and the rest of the world. He is co-founder of the civil society organization, Lokayan ("Dialogue of the People") in Delhi, India, which received the Right Livelihood Award (known as the alternative Nobel) in 1985 for its pioneering work "linking and strengthening local groups working to protect civil liberties, women's rights, and the environment." Mr. Smitu Kothari is a visiting Professor from Princeton University and Executive Director of Intercultural Resources in Delhi, India.

Date: Monday, April 9 -- Time: 7:00-9:00 pm -- Location: 1102 South Campus Commons, Building #1

For more information about the evening, please be in touch with James Riker, Director of Beyond the Classroom, at: jriker@umd.edu. To learn more about the "Beyond the Classroom Living & Learning Program" please visit: http://www.BeyondTheClassroom.umd.edu

4 | Demos Presents: The Collaborative State
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In a new report titled, "The Collaborative State: How working together can transform public services" Demos, a UK-based think tank, argues that, "If we want to sustain improvements [in public sector reform] into the next decade, then we need a new generation of reform that builds on experiments with collaboration between both different parts of the public sector, and between institutions and the people they serve. Joined-up government, place-based policy making and co-production with citizens offer exciting new possibilities for creating flexible, dynamic and democratic public service organisations."

These ideas are explored in a substantial and wide-ranging collection of essays by scholars and practitioners who assess how far collaborative modes of governance have evolved across sectors and presents several interesting international case studies - from Katrina to Whitehall - derived from some of the most interesting initiatives to date. The report concludes by asking how future governments can use collaboration as a key design principle for transforming the UK's public services.

Download an electronic copy or order a printed copy at: http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/collaborativestatecollection

5 | Framing Race Relations and Prospects for Peace in Dayton, Ohio: A New Dialogue Initiative
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As Dayton, OH marks the 20th anniversary of the International Peace accord and becomes a home for people from diverse cultures and backgrounds, finding more practical approaches to issues of race relation and violence may be Dayton's greatest promise and greatest challenge. Civic Life international, one of 10 community partners in The Mystery of Love project, a national educational community dialogue initiative that premiered on PBS December 13th, has developed a community action framing of race relations and violence in Dayton, Ohio. Rather than relying upon a single method to engage citizens on the topic, Civic Life International and local partners wove together multiple indigenous and contemporary approaches to dialogue and reconciliation. Since December 12, 2006 when the project started with the participation of Dayton Mayor, Rhin McLin, about 156 diverse members of our community have met several times, at the local PBS Station, THINK T.V, using various conversation models including focus group, ASG, deliberative problem solving, sustained dialogue etc, to learn from one another and share thoughts, wisdom, knowledge, suggestions and ideas about how and what actions of "Love" could be trasforming for individuals and for the Greater Dayton community alike.

To learn more about this effort, please visit http://www.civiclifeint.org/ or contact Tokunbo Awoshakin at awoshakin@civiclifeint.org

6 | Oxford Internet Institute Working Parper: Web2.0 and Citizen Participation
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The Oxford Internet Institute has published a recent working paper for discussion titled, "Reconfiguring Government-Public Engagements: Enhancing the Communicative Power of Citizens." This paper is the outcome of a recent OII/Cabinet Office Event, "Engaging with the 'Google Generation'" which considered the implications for governmental engagement with the public of emerging trends in online communication (such as social networking tools and blogs).

The paper is available for download at: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/publications/FD9_pa1.pdf

7   AmericaSpeaks Process Enhances Dialogue in Sierra Leone
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Christiane Frischmuth of the World Bank reports on an interesting public education process in Sierra Leone that adapted a well-known large-scale public engagement technique developed in the United States to local circumstances. According to a post at americaspeaks.org, "A 3-day Dialogue event with multiple stakeholders took place in December 2006 to share the status of and learning on the decentralization process so far. One particular aspect was the announcement of the results of a recent Local Government Performance Review and conversations about the implications of the results of the Review and further actions. Ministers, government agencies, development partners, NGOs, CBOs, media, politicians, traditional chiefs, local government representatives and others attended the event (250-300 participants). The conveners were the Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Finance, the design team consisted of some of their staff members, coaches, myself, World Bank staff and representatives from civil society. The design of the event followed a process used by Americaspeaks with various adaptations."

To read the complete report, please visit: http://www.americaspeaks.org/spotlight/?p=46

8   U.S. Bioethics Agency with Mandate for Public Consultation Proposed
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Two leading scholars argue that the existing federal regulatory structure fails for matters of human biotechnology, necessitating the creation of a new agency. The authors of a new report, "Beyond Bioethics: A Proposal for Modernizing the Regulation of Human Biotechnologies" are Francis Fukuyama and Franco Furgur, both of Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies. According to a recent announcement, "The product of several years' research and consultation with members of a study group, the report envisages creating a new agency tasked with overseeing both assisted reproductive technologies, and research involving human embryos or reproductive tissues. While the authors acknowledge the agency would not be the place to resolve the debate over the moral status of embryos -- in fact, that a political consensus on this question would be a precondition for the agency's formation -- they propose that the agency reach its policy decisions through extensive public consultation."

Please visit the Human Biotech Governance Forum at: http://www.biotechgov.org/

9 | Harvard Study Praises the Public's Role In New Orleans Recovery Planning
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The process that engaged thousands of New Orleanians in developing their city's rebuilding plan is drawing praise for increasing the plan's credibility and momentum with local political leaders in a new study by a Harvard University researcher. The study, titled "Citizen Participation in the Unified New Orleans Plan," was conducted by Abigail Williamson, a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and is available at http://www.americaspeaks.org (.pdf file).

The study finds that local political leaders came to support the unified plan thanks in large part to a series of high-tech town meetings, called Community Congresses, that simultaneously engaged thousands of New Orleanians across as many as 21 cities at a time. The meetings were organized and facilitated by local UNOP planners along with AmericaSpeaks, the nonprofit organization that has orchestrated dozens of similar large-scale town meetings across the country.

To download a copy of the report, visit: http://www.americaspeaks.org

10 | New Book: The voice of the people. Democracy as a conversation
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"De stem van het volk. Democratie als gesprek" ("The voice of the people. Democracy as a conversation") is the first Dutch-language volume on deliberative democracy. The book, edited by Raf Geenens (Catholic University of Brussels) and Ronald Tinnevelt (Radboud University Nijmegen) is published by Lannoo Campus (Leuven), and includes new contributions by a number of political philosophers and social scientists from Belgium and the Netherlands. The book is divided in three sections. The first section explores the theoretical foundations of deliberative democracy. The second section looks into potential applications of the model: at the domestic level, at EU-level, and at global level. The third and final section formulates a number of critical reflections, drawing on both theoretical and empirical research

The book can be bought in bookstores in Belgium and the Netherlands, online, or by sending an e-mail to the publisher at: promotie@lannoocampus.be. The editors can be contacted at the following addresses: Raf.Geenens@kubrussel.ac.be and R.Tinnevelt@jur.ru.nl

For more information on the book, please visit: http://www.lannoo.com/content/lannoo/wbnl/listview/1/index.jsp?titelcode=12567&fondsid=8

11  Americans for the Arts Convention Features Civic Engagement
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"Risk and Reward: Balancing Acts in Arts and Community" is the topic for Americans for the Arts' 2007 convention. The civic engagement track includes presentations that explore:

*Case-based sessions such as the Los Angeles County Arts Commission's recent survey and program initiative to address homelessness through the arts in Los Angeles-featuring Artists John Malpede, Director of Grant Programs, Los Angeles County Arts Commission Janine Perron, and Founder and Artistic Director of the Fringe Benefits Alliance Norma Bowles;

*Skill building workshops such as a new group process for engaging colleagues and fellow citizens in authentic conversations and decision-making from the Institute of Cultural Affairs-presented by Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Phillip Horn and Principal of Sierra Circle Consulting Pat Tuecke;

*Peer networking opportunities such as a conversation with the Western Folklife Center, Radio Bilingue, and the Center for Rural Strategies sharing arts programming models that bring visibility to rural communities and rural issues;

For more information on registration and rates, visit http://www.AmericansForTheArts.org/events/2007/convention/003.asp.

12   Third Annual Youth and Democracy Forum
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On Saturday, April 28, DemocracyWorks will host a public forum for high school students, parents, educators and community activtists interested in learning more about opportunities to engage young people in our communities. Participants will have the opportunity to speak with representatives of youth based agencies and collect information at the "Civic Mall" informational tables. Featured Guests are Carlos Saavedra, community leader in East Boston, MA and coordinator of the Student Immigrant Movement (SIM); and Spank B.U.D.A., host of a top-ranked show on Power 104.1.

For more information visit: http://www.democracyworksct.org/

13 | New Book: A Pragmatist Philosophy of Democracy
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In recent years there has been a renewed interest in American pragmatism. In political philosophy, the revival of pragmatism has led to a new appreciation for the democratic theory of John Dewey. In this book, Robert B. Talisse advances a series of pragmatic arguments against Deweyan democracy. Particularly, Talisse argues that Deweyan democracy cannot adequately recognize pluralism, the fact that intelligent, sincere, and well-intentioned persons can disagree sharply and reasonably over moral ideals. Drawing upon the epistemology of the founder of pragmatism, Charles S. Peirce, Talisse develops a conception of democracy that is anti-Deweyan but nonetheless pragmatist. Talisse then brings the Peircean view into critical conversation with contemporary developments in democratic theory, including deliberative democracy, Rawlsian political liberalism, and Richard Posner's democratic realism. The result is a new pragmatist option in democratic theory.

For more information and to order the book visit http://www.routledge.com

14 | MySpace Not Yours: Participation Nation Seminar
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[From involve.org.uk/events] Never before have citizens had so many opportunities to participate. Despite this, the British public are showing themselves to be increasingly disinterested in the work of the public realm. What is the role of the citizen in the public realm today? How does the trend of disengagement affect public policy and public services? What are its causes and how should politics respond? Central to successful public policy making, Britain must now redefine the relationship between individuals, communities and public services to engage a time-squeezed population that increasingly views consumer choice and non-political activism as their priority.

These are the concerns addressed by the Participation Nation project; the next seminar will feature Jackie Ashley (The Guardian), Iain Dale (18 Doughty Street), Tom Steinberg (MySociety), Nigel Dacre (10 Alps Digital TV), Oswin Baker (Ipsos-MORI), and Richard Wilson (Involve) who will discuss, "My Space not Yours? Public Engagement and the You Tube Generation." The event will address the possibilities and implications of eDemocracy and Web 2.0 on public participation with the assistance of key figures from the field.

April 26 at the Local Government House, Smith Square, London. To reserve a place please email events@involve.org.uk