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October 7, 2009
Strengthening Our Nation's Democracy
Last summer, about 100 representatives of various strands of democratic reform work came together in Washington, DC to create a common agenda. Among the participants were advocates of electoral reform, voting rights, and campaign finance reform; practitioners of public deliberation and advocates of consulting with citizens; federal civil servants who have created and managed programs that involve collaboration with nonprofit groups and communities; grassroots community organizers; activists for participatory democracy overseas; and educators who are concerned about teaching civic skills to students and to communities.
Thanks to remarkable facilitation by AmericaSpeaks President Carolyn Lukensmeyer and a small team of other leaders, the whole group was able to pull together a single agenda after just two very long and intense days of discussion. The result is here .
I do not think this agenda is completely comprehensive--it's mostly focused at the federal level and it's perhaps not strong enough on culture change--but it is an extremely important document. If we can achieve this agenda, we will transform American democracy.
October 7, 2009 8:53 AM | category: none