Planning for Stronger Local Democracy

PACE webinar

March 22, 2012

The Deliberative Democracy Consortium

Slides available at:www.slideshare.net/mattleighninger

Guides:http://bit.ly/rWeHaUhttp://bit.ly/iwjgqn

The context:

How have citizens* changed?

More educated More skeptical – different attitudes

toward authority Have less time to spare Use the Internet to learn and connect

* “citizens” = residents, people

The context:

Families with young children

Have the most at stake in community success

Parents have even more motivation to engage, but even less time, than average resident

Want opportunities to engage in community, not just politics

Successful recent public engagement tactics

Proactive about recruitment Bringing diverse perspectives together Sharing experiences Giving people chance to make up their own

minds (deliberative) Different levels of action: volunteers, teams,

organizations, policy decisions Increasing use of online tools

Successful tactic: Online tools

Complement face-to-face communication, don’t replace it

Particularly good for:o Providing background informationo Data gathering by citizenso Generating and ranking ideaso Helping people visualize optionso Maintaining connections over time

Digital divides (plural)

Overall, Internet access growing “Access” – to Internet, to government – has

never been enough Different people use different hardware Different people go to different places on the

Internet Communities just as complex online as off –

recruitment must be proactive

In other (fewer) words, the key success factors are:

Diverse critical mass Structured Deliberative Action-oriented Online and F2F

Successes, limitations of engagement so far

Why do it: Make a decision or plan in a reasonable wayGet more people working on the issueBuild trust

Successes: When done well, meets all three goals aboveGives new leaders a chance to step forward

Challenges: Takes lots of time (especially recruitment)Hard to sustain (not designed to be sustained)May meet goals of ‘engagers,’ but not ‘engaged’Doesn’t often change the institutionsTrust, relationships fade over time

1. Sustain the benefits2. Allow the ‘engaged’ to set the agenda3. Better address inequities 4. Increase community attachment and

economic growth5. Increase residents’ sense of legitimacy and

“public happiness”

Why plan for more sustainable kinds of engagement?

Need more sustained, holistic forms of engagement - regular, structured, enjoyable opportunities that enable people to: Connect with other people (particularly people who are different from themselves) Feel like they belong to a community that values their voices and contributions Bring their concerns and priorities to the table (they help shape the agenda) Participate in governance (they have a say/hand in decision-making and problem-solving)

Social media is a critical tool for new forms of engagement

More sustained Larger, more diverse numbers of

people Easier for ‘engagers’ – recruitment

doesn’t have to start from scratch More open to ideas from the

‘engaged’

Community engagement planners should

consider some key building blocks::

Resources

• www.participedia.net• www.deliberative-democracy.net• www.soulofthecommunity.org • www.everydaydemocracy.org• www.publicagenda.org• www.kettering.org• On Facebook: “Deliberative Democracy

Consortium” group page• The Next Form of Democracy

Resources (continued)

• On YouTube: the DDC channel

• Using Online Tools to Engage – and Be Engaged by – the Public at http://bit.ly/iwjgqn

• Planning for Stronger Local Democracy at bit.ly/rWeHaU – and other resources at www.nlc.org