Rebuilding civil society through "political rewilding"

Guardian columnist George Monbiot ("There is an antidote to demagoguery – it’s called political rewilding") suggests that the rise of authoritarian populism could be staunched by re-engaging people and local governments in taking action and dealing with matters in a more subsidiarity fashion.  From the article:

The much bigger change is this: to stop seeking to control people from the centre. At the moment, the political model for almost all parties is to drive change from the top down. They write a manifesto, that they hope to turn into government policy, which may then be subject to a narrow and feeble consultation, which then leads to legislation, which then leads to change. I believe the best antidote to demagoguery is the opposite process: radical trust. To the greatest extent possible, parties and governments should trust communities to identify their own needs and make their own decisions.

... When you try to control nature from the top down, you find yourself in a constant battle with it. ... The same applies to politics. Mainstream politics, controlled by party machines, has sought to reduce the phenomenal complexity of human society into a simple, linear model that can be controlled from the centre. The political and economic systems it creates are simultaneously highly unstable and lacking in dynamism; susceptible to collapse, as many northern towns can testify, while unable to regenerate themselves. They become vulnerable to the toxic, invasive forces of ethno-nationalism and supremacism.

But in some parts of the world, towns and cities have begun to rewild politics. Councils have catalysed mass participation, then – to the greatest extent possible – stepped back and allowed it to evolve. Classic examples include participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre in Brazil, the Decide Madrid system in Spain, and the Better Reykjavik programme in Iceland. Local people have reoccupied the political space that had been captured by party machines and top-down government. They have worked out together what their communities need and how to make it happen, refusing to let politicians frame the questions or determine the answers. The results have been extraordinary: a massive re-engagement in politics, particularly among marginalised groups, and dramatic improvements in local life. Participatory politics does not require the blessing of central government, just a confident and far-sighted local authority.

---

There are other examples of capacity building and community-driven action, including the Asset Based Community Development Approach, less radical citizen involvement programs in Calgary, Minneapolis, and Seattle ("Framingham Massachusetts creates Citizen Participation Officer position"), various citizen-engaged planning systems (Atlanta, San Diego), etc.

And while more top-down, social urbanism in Medellin, Colombia ("Social urbanism and Baltimore") and Antanas Mockus' "Citizenship Culture" approach in Bogota ("Citizenship Culture: Nudging urban residents to get along & give back," Big Bold Cities) are also relevant approaches to re-engaging citizens.

In college I came across the work of the now defunct Citizen Involvement Training Project and the community organizing approach in the field of Social Work ("Building Citizen Support for Planning at the Community Level," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare) which influenced me greatly.