Democracy At Work

In many ways citizens deliberating with citizens is a lot more rare than we think. It happens in coffee shops and numerous other venues, but rarely is it organized. And when it is it usually overseen by government initiatives and key facilitators.The London, Ontario Citizen's Panel has been solely a citizen with citizen effort, existing outside the political system but hoping to have input into policy decisions at the government levels. I have come to determine that the very future of democracy depends on just such initiatives - at all levels and in all places possible. As John Dewey put it:"The keynote of democracy as a way of life may be expressed as the necessity for the participation of every mature human being in the formation of values that regulate the living of people together; which is necessary from the standpoint of both the general social welfare and the full development of human beings as individuals."All this doesn't mean that we should have untold confidence in the ability of people to govern themselves. It is an art after all. But we have reached the point of civic life where it can be said that such an initiative would likely have just as much success at creating a progressive society as our governing elites have shown at present. Self government is arduous work, only made inspirational by the ability of people to not only participate but to progress by finding solutions through compromise and education.And so we have the Citizen's Panel. Created as a response to motivate citizens concerning the Occupy movement's message of income disparity, it was designed specifically to allow and facilitate the possibility of citizens engaging together on the issues of economic brokenness and the need to reform social assistance as it is presently constituted in the province of Ontario.You'll seen in the video below that citizens took this chance seriously, filled the venue, and held animated conversations for two hours without blowing up, getting politically partisan, or even lapsing into sentimentality. They were there to do the serious work of citizen engagement and for those of us facilitating the session we walked away deeply impressed.Citizen engagement, in whatever form it comes in, is valuable at any stage. But to watch Canadians engage interactively with little facilitation gives hope that the slow democratic decline we have been witnessing in this country of late can be reversed through grassroots enterprises.I forgot to bring my camera, so had to resort to the iPhone, but you'll get the picture of just how active everyone was. Watch the video and enjoy democracy at work.http://youtu.be/X9YC55f8bmc