THE DEPARTMENT OF DEMOCRACY 1

Purpose: To secure and promote a vibrant democratic culture in the United States. 2

 

 

The Office of Democratic Culture 3

Purpose: To ensure the health of our democratic commons -- elections, freedoms, skills, information access, and the creative marriage of unity and diversity. 4

* Electoral Integrity 5

--- Voting technologies monitoring 6

--- Disclosure of special interest electoral involvements 7

--- Campaign finance reform 8

* Democratic Rights, Freedoms, Responsibilities, and Skills 9

--- Democracy education and skills training 10

--- Promotion of democratic rights, freedoms, responsibilities, and skills 11

--- Defense of democratic rights and freedoms 12

* Open Information Environment 13

--- Government information access / Freedom of information 14

--- Robust journalism 15

--- Web freedom and information flow among citizens 16

* Unity in Diversity 17

--- Transpartisan and trans-polarization dialogues and initiatives 18

-----[e.g., Reuniting America and Public Conversation Project] 19

--- Search for common ground dialogues and initiatives 20

-----[e.g., Search for Common Ground and Future Search] 21

--- Diversity dialogues and initiatives  22

-----(multi-cultural, interracial, interfaith, etc.) 23

* Democratic cultural affairs 24

--- Art - fine, performance, and multi-media -- about or invoking democracy 25

--- Celebrations of democracy 26

--- Validations of democratic heroes and projects 27

 

The Office of Government Accountability 28

Purpose: To help citizens manage the governments they establish to secure their common welfare and future. 29

* Citizen evaluation of government agencies and officials 30

* Special interest influence tracking and publicizing 31

* Protection of whistleblowers 32

 

 

The Office of Citizen Deliberation 33

Purpose: To access the collective wisdom of the citizenry to guide our public activities, policies, and programs. 34

* Citizen state-of-the-nation (and local state-of-the-community) councils 35

-----[e.g., Wisdom Councils and Macleans Magazine 1991 "The People's Verdict"]  36

* Advisory citizen deliberations on issues, budgets, proposals, candidates, etc. 37

-----[e.g., Citizen Deliberative Councils and Participatory Budgets] 38

* Watershed, regional, and stakeholder councils 39

* Citizen deliberation-based government institutions 40

-----[e.g., Danish Consensus Conferences and British Columbia's Citizens Assembly] 41

* Official commitment to take citizen deliberative findings seriously 42

-----[e.g., Western Australia's Ministry of Planning and Infrastructure] 43

 

 

The Office of Public Participation and Citizen Engagement 44

Purpose: To broadly involve citizens with each other, their communities, and the public affairs that matter to them. 45

* Public conversation programs  46

-----[e.g., Everyday Democracy, Conversation Cafés, National Issues Forums] 47

* Public commentaries and input on politics and governance 48

-----[e.g., online forums re proposed legislation] 49

* Community engagement, service, and volunteerism 50

* Public affairs political activism, campaigns, and co-creative collaborations 51

* Positive engagement with dissent, unrest, and crisis 52

-----[e.g., Dynamic Facilitation, Nonviolent Communication, Open Space Conferences] 53

 

 

The Office of Democratic Innovation 54

Purpose: To continue the tradition of our nation's founders in fostering democratic innovations that serve not only this country but the world. 55

* Global research on existing democratic innovations 56

* Forums for sharing democratic innovations 57

* Funding for democratic experimentation, research and development 58

* Legislation and programs for increasingly vibrant democracy 59

 

 

List any offices or functions you believe should be added: 60

 

Offer any overall comments here or at the Wiser Democracy blog http://wiserdemocracy.blogspot.com/. 61

 

Coheartedly,

Tom