Kitchen Democracy

big kitchen party
Originally uploaded by pesotum.

Over the last week in particular, I have been quite distressed with "participatory democracy" having attended two reasonably ugly and problematic community meetings (one a committee meeting, but with some "guest" attendees).

And today I had a long conversation with a fellow advocate about balance grassroots organization and mobilization with deliberation and how do you focus on building the depth of understanding about how to address key issues, when the "common wisdom" about what the problem is and how to solve it may well be flawed. Mob "democracy" scares me.

I believe in engaged and deliberative participatory democracy, meaning that participants are to be expected to follow some ground rules (sort of like the Hippocratic Oath, "first, do no harm"), put in a modicum of effort, and commit to some form of empiricism--data- based objective analysis rather than musings, anecdotes, and impressions.

I know that the average person can't be expected to read books and reports about every issue that comes before us as a community (and nation) but there needs to be some expectation that foolishness and natterings shouldn't be tolerated.

I just came across the Berkeley, California-based website Kitchen Democracy and it's quite fascinating. From the website:

Why Simona and Robert started Kitchen Democracy

We believe we are responsible citizens. We work hard, pay our taxes and try to be considerate of other people and of the environment. We vote in each election after carefully studying the candidates and the issues.

But there is one thing we almost never do. Even though we have strong opinions about local issues, we almost never go to City Hall meetings. Feeling guilty about that, we asked ourselves why.

We realized that at the end of the day, we are too tired for a meeting which lasts until late at night. And it is exhausting to sit through a meeting while a few people dominate and say unkind things about a lot of people.

So we started Kitchen Democracy. We know there are many people who would like to contribute to local issues; people with great ideas and a willingness to listen to other points of view. We believe those are the people who should be participating in community meetings.

If you want to share your ideas with your community, and are also willing to listen to other viewpoints, then Kitchen Democracy is your website. We will do our best to make Kitchen Democracy a civil place for you to participate in your community - on your own schedule in your own home. With your help, we can make it happen.

What they do is provide a more deliberative forum to engage in issues. They divide up the issues into two categories: city-wide and neighborhood (which they call local).

For example, one of the local issues is whether a local hardware store should be able to build apartments above the store, as well as to expand. Either action requires a variance, to use more of the lot than allowed for by zoning regulations.

The entry includes concept sketches, photo of the current conditions, a summary of pros and cons, a written perspective from the local City Councilmember, as well as an outline of the Hardware Store's position.

Each entry allows you to comment and vote (if you are a resident of Berkeley, California) and the voting tallies are coded by the distance of where you live in relation to the matter at hand.

Check it out it's quite interesting. In any case, this kind of process ought to be followed, whether or not it's web-based.

Index Keywords: civic-engagement