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Empower the People, Restore Trust in Government
This public mistrust affects all levels of government.
From city hall to the halls of Congress, important policy and spending decisions have been made for far too long by a handful of politicians behind closed doors, working in concert with corporations and special interests. This old way of doing the public’s business has bred anger and mistrust of all levels of government.
It shouldn’t come as any surprise, then, that only one out of five Americans trust government to do what’s right most of the time. They don’t believe their government listens to them and they don’t believe they have any power to affect public policy.
This public anger and mistrust isn’t healthy for our democracy. We need a new governance model that empowers people to make real decisions about important policy and spending.
As a member of Chicago’s City Council, I have embarked on an innovative alternative to the old style of decision-making. In an experiment in democracy, transparent governance, and economic reform, I’m letting the residents of my ward decide directly how to spend my entire discretionary capital budget of more than $1.3 million.
Known as “participatory budgeting,” this particular form of democracy is being used worldwide, from Brazil to the United Kingdom and Canada. It lets community members decide how to spend part of a government budget, through a series of community meetings and ultimately a final, binding vote.
While I’m the first elected official in the U.S. to implement participatory budgeting, it’s not a whole lot different than the old New England town meetings in which residents would gather to vote directly on the spending decisions of their town.
Community residents in my ward have met for the past year--developing a rule book for the process, gathering project ideas from local meetings, researching and budgeting projects. These range from public art to street resurfacing, and police cameras to bike paths. Then, residents get to pitch these project proposals to their neighbors at a series of “neighborhood assemblies” held throughout the ward.
The process will culminate in a ward-wide election on April 10, in which all residents age 16 and over, regardless of citizenship or voter registration status, will be invited to gather at a local high school to vote for up to eight projects, one vote per project. This process is binding. The projects that win the most votes will be funded up to $1.3 million.
While the process isn’t yet complete, it’s already yielding very positive results. Hundreds of community residents in my ward, many of whom had never before been involved in a civic activity, have become fully engaged in the participatory budgeting process. Rather than being passive observers of government, they’ve become active participants in governing. They’ve learned firsthand the tough decisions that elected officials are called upon to make during these tough economic times.
More importantly, they know they have the power to make real decisions, and that their government is not just hearing them but actually following their mandate.
Empowering people to make real decisions openly and transparently is the first step to restoring public trust in government.
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34 Comments so far
Show AllOur government has a verrrrrry looooong way to go before it restores my trust, believe me!!!! I'm thoroughly disgusted by the complete lack of public participation in our government's decision-making!!!
If you want to trust government, then get off your collective asses and make them do it.
Methinks Mr. Moore is confused on who holds the power. Essentially this piece is no more than a false retrospective pining for some halcyon day of "trust in government" and the illusory restoration to this time. Ignoring power relations will lead one into such a fuzzy way of thinking about what we need to do in order to break the chains of our oppressor.
There is a difference between the state and government. The state is the permanent collection of institutions that have entrenched power structures and interests. The government is made up of various politicians. It is the institutions that have power in the state due to their permanence, not the representatives who come and go. We cannot expect different politicians to act in different ways to the same pressures. However, this is all ignored by the voting political consumer who wishes Politician______ was more a socialist, green, populist etc. and could ignore the demands of the dominant class in society while in charge of one part of its protector and creature, the state.
In today's US elections are worse than worthless -- they simply perpetuate illusions & waste time. They are degrading & repulsive exercises in Madison Avenue PR techniques, where "the truth" is off limits from the get-go. Effort should be directed not at participating in this system, but at bringing it down, exposing its corrupt essence, & building genuinely constructive alternatives.
The people are already empowered that is not the problem. This article should have been titled, remembering power-how to get the people to exercise their power more directly.
The fact of democracy has been established, our challenge continues to be exercising it, or exercising at all, right?
We have the freedom, now we need to stop abusing it stop neglecting it. We need to put up or shut up as they say. If we don't we will continue to see a bunch of servants that minus direction, go where they will.
"Let the people decide!" sounds like a cop-out for elected officials. Isn't that their responsibility--to make decisions based upon their best judgment while listening to what their constituents say. The worthy alderman here allows "the people" to decide which of eight projects gets funding--and the method involves a "vote" that has people showing up to cast their ballots for what they deem "the most worthwhile." But what fraction of his constituents will actually make the choice? Is it possible at least some of them will profit directly or indirectly from certain options? What about valuable projects that do not have social support--projects that might benefit the homeless, for example--are they to be rejected because no one is out there pushing? In a representative democracy the underlying principle is that elected officials secure the trust of their constituents and vote in a manner that is best for all. Too bad that principle was abandoned here.
"What about valuable projects that do not have social support?"
I guess it depends on one's definition of valuable. If you can't generate social support, it's not valuable and we shouldn't do it. Confiscating my hard earned money and spending it on projects that I object to, is called tyranny.
"The State is a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of human behavior; we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently."
— Gustav Landauer
We can restore faith in government and the state with a peaceful "peoples revolution" at the ballot box in November.
Do not vote for any candidate supported in the MSM. Do not vote for incumbants. Do not vote for career politicians. Do not vote for anyone who has had involvement with law enforcement, the courts, or the legal profession... i.e. no cops, judges or lawyers. Why should those who enforce the laws be allowed to make the laws? This only encourages corruption.
Demand the dissolution of the FED, the IRS, etc. Demand the revocation of the Patriot Act, NAFTA, etc.
If demands are not met, stop the functioning of government. Instead of marching on Capitol Hill, revisit the 60's... stage massive "sit-ins" or "lie-ins". Block congressional office building halls with tens of thousands of human bodies, prevent congressmen, aides, lobbists, etc. from conducting business by simply blocking their movement with human flesh.
If necessary... take the fight to the corporations. Monkeywrench them directly. Fix there equipment so it no longer functions. Gather by the tens of thousands and block their ability to function.
It's long past time for humans to put themselves into the machine.
Revolution cannot be conducted on your Wii, Playstation or XBox... the revolution won't be fought online in WoW... the revolution won't be fought on TV.
If the people don't act very soon, the revolution will not be peaceful. At some point, the event horizon for an actual civil war will arrive. No sane human wants that...
------------------
A "friend of Ishmael"
The dirty Fu<#ing hippies... were right - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKEZoY-TMG4
Freedom - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3vhcptoh_Y
Break Out Of The Box - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD9WMQEMe2Q
Yeah, now you're talkin. I'm in.
right, Bob...
Global Start Date: September 22, 2012...
Let's get those gardens growing!
Congratulations Mr. Moore. You have laid a framework for the "Citizen" to have a say in his Government. There is more that can be done and I'm sure the voters in your Ward will give you that opportunity. "Representative" Democracy has brought us to the point where only 18% of the people believe the Government represents their interests (politico Poll).
Yes, most state governments and the federal government are a mess, but we need to work to improve them, not talk of militant actions which we would all regret. For instance, talk of getting rid of the IRS is pure nonsense. What are we going to do to keep our armed forces ready, and keep our country running, depend on donations? It would help a lot if people could work on problems instead of spending all their time trashing the other guys.
"What are we going to do to keep our armed forces ready, and keep our country running, depend on donations?"
How much more kill power do you need?
Until 1913 (16th amendment ratified) we did it with import tariffs .
Up until the Civil War 50% of govt revenue was from tariffs. It was, at one time, 100%.....
I will agree with the fact that people need to be empowered and get back some self-confidence but I won't leave out the fact that politicians have their share of responsibility too. Going local is good and all but if the more powerful folks on the state and federal offices are obstructing local progress, it's our duty to call them out and not look the other way. For example, for every dollar wasted on wars and corporate bailouts, ever dollar needed for public services that we paid our taxes for is lost. Say Obama, when you can give hundreds of billions to corporate bailouts so quickly, why not take a fraction of that and immediately put that towards helping the states funding things like metro rail and busing ? Politicians wield a lot of power and cannot abdicate responsibility much as some of us would like to think otherwise. When other countries can wisely spend taxpayers' money on the basic public services like health care and public transportation, this country can do the same instead of making suckers out of us voters with all this tough guy talk and hope schmope bs and then throwing us under the bus without warning. When government lies and destroys our trust and confidence, don't be surprised to see more protests even if it's Tea Parties in the end.
fwiw, I'm Canadian and haven't heard of participatory budgeting.
It does sound like there'll be a fervent series of pitches to have access to the money that will trickle down from above. Is it rearranging trough chairs on the Titanic, I wonder, money for projects that don't notice or address the mess we're in?
imo ground up initiatives will be more educational and revealing . . . and useful. For example, participatory gardening in every ward. Local food self-sufficiency would inspire a whole community. Participatory budgeting can tend to create a new set of winners and losers.
radicalrelocalization.com
Of course the people's trust in government has been diminished, but not because government is intrinsically corrupt. There are powerful corporate forces at work with an agenda that includes destroying the public trust in government. We've even elected people who have told us before they were elected that government is the problem. What bunk! We need to completely remove corporate money from our election process as a beginning to restore a trust in government. It's not government that deserves distrust but rather the powerful lobbyist behind the curtain pulling the strings. It's our responsibility as citizens to develop a government that works for us.
The real solutions are: Public Election Finance; Term Limits; or probably he most controversial, direct vote. Let Congress write up the bills and once a year the country could vote on passage. I believe that about sixty percent now own a computer,that is more than the total at national elections, plus the libraries, and we are issued a Social Security Number a birth, why not.
No offense Mr. Moore, but most ideas from folks that came from Chicago are costing the country a fortune with no results. So, no thanks.
You got that right, pardner ! Check out today's news article on the biggest EMBARRASSMENT on the $4.6 trillion going to Wall Street ! I can't believe I voted for this guy and you're right. He makes even George W. Bush look like a fiscal conservative. You know, it's funny when we're told that we should wait for those measly health care subsidies or for that matter settle for small scraps on metro rail funding all the while Wall Street gets its money quick as fastfood delivery. If you voted for Nader or Mckinney, I'd like to apologize to you for being an ass and voting like the typically misinformed Democrat/Republican voter for Obama when I should have looked a little closer.
We should not restore trust in government - ever. Is it because all governments are bad? No, although one could make that argument. Trust in government is a meme that we should not accept. We shouldn't trust government because we shouldn't have to. If we have transparency and accountability then we don't need to trust the government. However, if we had those two things, government would be in a position to do something about our lack of trust. Trust should never be given; it should be earned. Given the US government's mendacious past and present, that will be when hell freezes over.
Good point on Trust. When trust is "given" it will be misunderstood or abused. Mr. Moore starts the process of "earning trust" with his action, small it may be. Perhaps it is a mustard seed.
I feel we're way, way past these types of options.
However, if this gives the people involved a way to cope, then its a good idea--for them.
Whatever gets you through the night.
Letting your constituents spend your discretionary budget 'sounds' like participatory governance, but Congress' most important task is not spending money, its passing laws that affect how business is done in the private sector. These laws are the ones the corporations are writing and using their campaign finance clout to push through, and this corruption can only be addressed by campaign finance reform (as suggested by others like Grousefeather).
fixcongressfirst.org
No 'participatory budgetting' window dressing. Direct voter elevation by throwing large campaign money out of the process.
Ease up now. I strongly agree with the importance of election reform but making it sound like this attempt at participatory governance is an attempt to pull attention away from election reform is counter productive. It's not an "either or" situation. We all want government of, by and for the people. Any progress in that direction is progress.
abbie hoffman joked that ordinary people are hocked about tossing a dixie cup to the ground while con edison spews tons of poison out of its smoke stacks every minute....
Sorry, but let's see that "empower the people" thing first and I'll think about the "trust the government" one after that starts to get routine.
I have not been able to verify them yet, but I have heard figures that something close to 50% of Americans consider the government a direct threat to their own personal well being.
Coffee, anyone?
When you are erroneously, wrongly convicted of a crime due to the perjury of a police officer, we'll talk about ever trusting the government again.
One crummy cop does not make an entire govt corrupt..You own personal experience seems to color your opinion of far too wide a range of beliefs.
But, there are many corrupt cops, politicians, corporations and individuals, and yes, the govt should not be trusted it should be controlled.
When one citizen is treated unjustly, we are all treated unjustly. Have some sympathy for yourself.
Have some common sense, perhaps even balance. This guy take the actions of one single individual and makes an entire political philosophy out of it...and you follow him blindly over the cliff.....congratulations.Baaaaaah.
Check out the National Initiative for Democracy which gives citizens a very active role in law making. http://ni4d.us/
One way to restore trust in government is never to elect people who hate government.
Thank the Gods and Goddesses for you, Sir. Could you maybe give some pointers on participatory democracy to that other guy from Illinois?
I hope this catches on like wildfire! Let the Beltway gang continue to ignore us. We'll set up our own shops. Hopefully, this will even extend to state single payer systems and the like. They can continue pretend they are doing something for Americans.