National Civic Review 91:2
Note from the President
Much of the National Civic League's work in communities was developed
over the same period in which policymaking authority and responsibility
were being devolved from the federal government to state and local governments.
As communities adapted to the challenge of meeting new obligations,
the need to change how they did business became apparent. With its stress
on governance and the development of new roles for citizens, businesses,
governments, and nonprofits, NCL's approach to community building and
citizen democracy found a receptive audience.
Of course, NCL was far from alone in stepping up to help communities
understand and improve how local political decisions are made. The past
several decades have seen impressive growth in the number and sophistication
of community-oriented movements and local intermediary organizations,
some of which were described in volume 90, number 4 of NCR, published
in 2001. Collaborative processes and consensus-building techniques are
now in widespread use in communities across the country.
While this reinvigoration of civic engagement is encouraging, it is
clear that much remains to be done. The resources and political will
required to ensure homeland security, improve educational outcomes,
and provide access to affordable health care must be drawn from all
sectors of society.
Political reform is like repairing a leaky boat while on the water-you
can't replace everything all at once. Our belief at NCL is that sustainable
political reform begins at the state and local levels. But this focus
is not meant to preclude engagement with national politics. As we in
the reform community seek to reengage citizens and renew political institutions,
we must develop ways of more effectively connecting political activity
at the local level with ongoing national debates. This issue of NCR
takes up this goal and contains articles on a number of important reform
ideas and issues.
One of the most promising ways to improve how public decisions are made
is to engage more citizens in the dialogue surrounding community decision-making
processes. Forums for public deliberation are one of the best means
of convening local dialogues on political issues that affect communities
across the country. In a pair of companion articles in this issue, practitioners
from the Study Circles Resource Center detail the conceptual underpinnings
of deliberative dialogue and describe the outcomes of several statewide
deliberative projects. An article by officials of the Montana Consensus
Council complements this perspective and presents an analysis of public
participation in environmental decision making in Montana.
Foundations also have an essential role to play in broadening the reach
and deepening the impact of democratic discourse in the United States.
The president of the Kettering Foundation, David Mathews, offers his
ideas on how philanthropy can support deliberation to further democracy's
mission of self-rule expressed through collective action. Accurate and
reliable information is a prerequisite for deliberation, and the importance
of keeping citizens informed is given an interesting twist in an article
by Sean P. Treglia of the Pew Charitable Trust. Treglia calls for cooperation
between the nonprofit sector and commercial media to make the case that
high-quality news broadcasts can be economically successful. Finally,
passage in San Francisco this spring of a proposition endorsing the
use of instant run-off voting underscores the importance of voting reforms
for widening participation.
The great Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter memorably linked the
productive capacities of capitalism to a process of creative destruction.
Paraphrasing this notion, we can identify creative adaptation as the
wellspring for the productive forces of democracy. Democratic renewal
is a work in progress. Over the years complacency and narrow self-concern
have attenuated the bonds of community in our country. Our present circumstances
in the continuing disquiet of this new and never-to-be-innocent century
make unfamiliar demands on us. While the rich associational life that
characterized our past can provide some inspiration, it does not present
a model that is adequate to the new challenges we face. We must develop
new, more inclusive forms of community that will support the responsibilities
of self-governance to which we are obligated. We think that the ideas
expressed in the articles composing this issue have a valuable role
in this collective endeavor.
Christopher T. Gates
President, National Civic League
|