Imagine a New Kind of Movement: Toward a Truly Mature Democracy
The universal sense of cross-partisan anxiety lingering after the recent midterm elections seems ironic. Voting served as much a referendum on the increasingly evident dialectic between voter apathy and political reactivity as anything else.
A good example is Minnesota’s gubernatorial election results, which remain in flux for the foreseeable future. State GOP leaders are calling for recount lawsuits on behalf of Tom Emmer. DFL leaders are scrambling to defend Mark Dayton’s near 9,000-vote lead — and salving the sting of statewide losses of incumbent seats.
All this public perseverating heightens citizens’ perception that both their public and personal values are being violated by big-time power games that determine their fate, but in which they can’t possibly compete.
Two construction workers surveying a road in Burnsville gave voice to the sense of futility. One resides in a rural area, the other in a suburb. Neither mentioned which candidate they preferred. Both qualify as so-called populists yet lack trust in either party. Neither identified with citizen movements.
They noted today’s populist movements seem co-opted by often hidden heavy hitters. Or, conversely, are undermined by widespread fears people of marginalization, if not more serious consequences of guilt-by-association. Pondering solutions to their and others’ civic inertia, the men considered the possibilities of a very different kind of social movement.
Commitment to a cooperative government
This movement would not demand members identify with a specific political perspective. Its only demand would be a common sense of commitment to a cooperative, cross-partisan, co-productive government. Implied would be the demand that politicians themselves, not their PR handlers or party proxies, clearly demonstrate their democratic leadership abilities.
This would call for a “show, not tell” attitude that audaciously contrasts the creative iterations recent campaigns used in winning with rage-rhetoric or losing with touchy-feely talk strategies. And would require, instead, measurable evidence of leaders’ very specific and sustained involvement in and impacts on expedient and respectful solutions.
The carrot — or more aptly stick, incentive behind the movement’s message would be: “If you can’t play nice politics, don’t plan on surviving the next election.” Which, as evidence and history suggests, would otherwise likely engage partisan passions just enough to swing the populist pendulum back to reset again. This and other troubling evidence increasingly shows that short-term change is unlikely at best.
Get in the game — and support all citizens
The underlying point for liberals is if you don’t get into the game, you’ll be out. For conservatives, if you don’t support all citizens, get ready for an uprising.
Both parties need to remember relevancy requires relationships that embrace what Jonathan Sacks calls “the dignity of difference.” And “The People” are not only organized institutions and polarizing populist groups. The People, whether politicians like it or not, translates as “You and your political foe, too.”
This Team of Rivals strategy, embodied by Abraham Lincoln, remains the only viable solution to political paralysis. This is not to say leaders, civic or citizen groups must “feel the love.” Only that they must have authentic “let’s get real” talks that lead to “let’s get ‘er done together” work.
Were the United States a fledgling democracy such as Pakistan or Indonesia, one could expect a big political learning curve. But one of the few things bipartisan Americans want to believe is that we are the leaders of the free world — the early adapters of what by now we’d like to brag of as a mature democracy.
In truth, though, what few Americans argue is that our bipartisan behaviors call our developmental abilities into quite serious question.
If the measure of a mature democracy is founded, as ours was, on the ideal that “We the People,” are responsible for the posterity of our country, all citizens should be called to see and engage their personal power. All politicians should be called to engage their humility and service to act as co-leaders of mature and co-mutual progress. They should not act as caricatures displaying regressive dramas.
‘Art of the possible’
In the words of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey, this attitude would embody a very American-style “art of the possible.”
The good news is, despite so many citizens’ current sense of impotence, the undercurrents of our collective potential for equity and common cause have not been fully scrubbed from our society.
Each day real citizens overcome deep differences in critically important ways in support of each other and shared communities. It can seem impossible to conceive such cooperation in a cacophonous culture that so insidiously steals our attention away from each other, and, indeed, threatens our values and potential to do good.
And yet, it happens every day. But they won’t and can’t be publicized by media or political campaigns until we as citizens see it, name it and loudly tell it.
We can witness our abilities in action in the seemingly innocuous acts of cooperation we engage in conjunction people whose ideologies might differ from ours, but whose deeper intents are not. When we see the dignity of our own and others’ differences, and engage them in co-productive solutions in our communities, we are achieving civic progress.
This is not to say that when and if we do, we should self-righteously brag of better abilities than politicians.
A needed transition
It is to say that we, as real people — whether we are road surveyors or elected officials — can help lead our country in critical ways, by clearly and persistently proving through our cooperative actions the larger point of our country. To do so, we need to do as the two road surveyors did recently. Our conversations, as theirs, must transition from obsessions about our problems to a clear and shared focus on our potentials.
Though it might seem counterintuitive to both common knowledge and campaign strategies, imagine the possibilities: An authentically all-American spontaneous social movement that demands sustained, measurable evidence of politicians’ abilities to act up to their human potential to be real and act in ways that best represent a mature democracy.
It will only be realized, however, when we transcend our apathy — and when, in no uncertain terms, we compel our leaders to prove how they play nice, for posterity’s sake.
Reflecting on the Civic Agency Institute and Our Work Ahead
We had a wonderful conclusion to our two-day institute in Washington, DC. On the second day, our campuses started mapping the next two years of their work. While being facilitated by two students from Middle Tennessee State University, each of the 18 campuses represented at the Institute presented their early action plans. I am both inspired and impressed by what their plans entail.
This work calls for a lot of community organizing – power mapping, one-to-ones, relationship building, etc. The university leaders that attended our meeting are among the most talented and dedicated people I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with. They are passionate about making government by the people a reality. And they understand the paramount importance of working with students to make this happen. Finally, they believe deeply in the democratic purpose of higher education and see themselves as instrumental to realizing this purpose.
Over the next few months, I’ll feature stories of the early work of our campuses on the ADP blog as they agitate students to solve local problems with elected officials. The theme of our national conference in Orlando, June 2-4, 2011, will be animated by “We the People.” We’ve driven the ideas of “We the People” into the theme of the national meeting which is, “Beyond Voting: Citizenship in the New Era.” During the ADP Meeting we will explore what it means to be a citizen. In the conference programming, we will pay special attention to models for successful community-elected officials partnerships and the progress we’ve made in the first seven months of this new phase of our work.
I recorded Harry’s closing remarks and will share those in the next week or so after editing. Not quite sure what We the People is? Read this blog post. Not sure what Civic Agency is? Visit this website. And if you’d like to get involved in the movement,contact me!
We the People Part 3
Harry C. Boyte
Also published on the American Democracy Project blog
“Something is stirring,” Cecilia Orphan wrote on the ADP blog, Thursday night of the Civic Agency meeting held last week, November 11th and 12th, at the state college and university building in Washington DC. More than 60 people discussed their work over the last year and made plans for a “We the People” (WtheP) effort to change customer service government – government which mainly does things for the people — into government of the people and by the people. In the We the People vision, government is our meeting ground, partner and common instrument in addressing our problems and building a shared life. Teams from 18 colleges and universities joined with representatives of Rock the Vote, Sojourners, the White House Office of Social Innovation, community colleges, the American Library Association, National Issues Forums and Strengthening our Nation’s Democracy network, among others.
Among many important steps forward, I want to highlight three:
- Empowerment gap. A focus on the empowerment gap needs to replace the achievement gap. Rom Coles, Director of the Community, Culture and Environment Center, Miguel Vasquez, professor of anthropology at Northern Arizona University, and other colleagues described the remarkable organizing work in the area around Flagstaff on issues ranging from weatherization and sustainable environments, to immigrant rights, water, and youth empowerment through Public Achievement. Against a tide of fear-mongering politics, Vasquez won a seat on the Flagstaff board of education on the platform of “the empowerment gap.” His focus on the empowerment gap highlights that the deepest problem in our education is that young people – especially children and teens of low income, minority, and immigrant backgrounds – feel “acted upon,” not agents of their education. A We the People movement will have as a central emphasis closing “the empowerment gap,” empowering young people to take leadership in developing the kind of education they need to be shapers of their lives, agents of change, and co-creators of healthy communities and the democracy.
- Public knowledge: There were many examples of a deepening in what Nancy Kranich, former president of the American Library Association and head of its new Center for Public Life, called “public knowledge.” Public knowledge involves developing ways to continuously learn from our mistakes, our successes, and our ongoing work. I was struck especially by the innovations in Public Achievement in many settings – Georgia College, Northern Arizona, Central Connecticut, Lincoln, and elsewhere. Many other examples emerged as well — “Tuesday Teas” at Western Kentucky, which offer ways for the campus and community to exchange and discuss experiences every week; debriefings of student weatherization efforts in Flagstaff, which help students learn from their community experience, the efforts of students at Lincoln and Florida A&M University to develop new forms of community service which empower, instead of provide charity. As Gary Paul pointed out in his concluding remarks, learning from the gritty, real, everyday work of making change is the way people develop “political sobriety” and a “prophetic imagination.” These point beyond the givens, allow us to work with people who make us uncomfortable, and cultivate a long term perspective.
- A new public narrative: We the People is not something in the future – it is emerging all over the place, as our colleagues, students, staff, and faculty rework relations with elected officials and other decision making bodies to be partners in public work, not mainly providers of services. The outstanding example is at University of Maryland/Baltimore County, where Yasmin Karimian and her fellow students have fundamentally reworked student government (the SGA) into a center for activating the public work of students and creating a different, more collaborative and respectful relationship between students, faculty, and the administration. One of the highlights of the organizing conference for me was the interconnection between these local examples of public work and large scale change – a connection which Paul Markham at Western Kentucky argues will be the centerpiece of the emerging movement. In the session on “Creating a Citizen Demand for ‘We the People’ Democracy, with Norm Ornstein, one of the nation’s leading political analysts, and Marta Urquilla, senior policy analyst with the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, we pointed to UMBC student government as a model for governments at every level to learn from – a return to government of and by the people.
Overall, many agreed that the challenge of American revitalization depends upon developing a new public narrative in which all participate and help to craft. It will be full of argument and difference on issues ranging from immigrants to the nature and content of education for the 21st century and the meaning of “the good life,” in a culture in which many students feel we’ve gone too far toward consumerism and “the rat race” (as students told me recently about their parents’ generation, at Lone Star community college in Houston Texas). But it will also be full of rich local stories of citizens shifting from complainers, victims, consumers, and supplicants of government to “owners of the store,” makers of change, agents and architects of the democracy.
The Civic Agency/We the People working meeting in Washington convinced me, yet again, the state colleges and universities will provide crucial leadership.
Post-Election: We the People Politics
Harry C. Boyte
Also published on the American Democracy Project blog.
The election results of 2010 are misread by commentators across the spectrum. On the right the Republican victories are described as a conservative backlash. On the left they are seen as the result of the administration’s failure to push aggressively enough in the direction of European-style social democracy in which government is the driver of
change. From the center, the problem is too many issues. Writing in the New York Times, former senator Evan Bayh of Indiana argues the Wednesday morning after the election that the Democrats’ mistake was not focusing single-mindedly on economic growth. Going forward, in his opinion, “every policy must be viewed through a single prism: does it help the economy grow?’
A more compelling explanation is that the civic and populist movement which elected Barack Obama in 2008, confounding conventional political labels, is yet to fully emerge.
Populism is caricatured in the media as a politics of grievance and anger. In this view, populism appears in flamboyant protests of the Tea Party or diatribes against government and other enemies on cable television and talk radio. But the genuine politics of populism is based on the view that while politicians and presidents play important roles, it takes ordinary citizens to “build America.”
This populism was central to the cooperatives of black and white small farmers of the late 19th century at the base of the Populist Party, the labor movements of the 1930s and the civil rights struggle in the 1950s and 1960s. All challenged unaccountable elites while also emphasizing the responsibility of everyone for “promoting the general welfare” and creating “a more perfect union.” These movements included large programs of popular self-education and uplift out of the belief that a thriving democracy requires a public who rises to the occasion of citizenship.
Martin Luther King described to me his identification with such populism on a hot summer day in St. Augustine, Florida in 1964, when I was working as a college student for his organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. I tell the story in my recent book The Citizen Solution: How You Can Make a Difference.
Barack Obama’s election victory in 2008 reflected such populism. As Marshall Ganz, a key architect of the campaign’s grassroots organizing operation, reminds us this morning in the Los Angeles Times, the effort was animated by “values that had long been eclipsed in our public life: a sense of mutual responsibility, commitment to equality and belief in
inclusive diversity.” The campaign activated millions of ordinary citizens, most of whom had never been involved in formal politics, and taught many the basics of grassroots organizing. It also embodied a deep respect for the talents and intelligence of the people, reflected in Obama’s “The America We Love” speech, June 30, 2008: “The greatness
of this country, its victories in war, its enormous wealth, its scientific and cultural achievements, all result from the energy and imagination of the American people, their toil, drive, struggle, restlessness, humor and
quiet heroism.”
Ganz urges the administration to return to such values and reliance on ordinary people, and this is a good idea. But genuine populism is not called into being by any leader, no matter how eloquent. Its roots grow from local communities, as people learn to work across differences of race, income and ideology to address challenges of economic development education, the environment and other issues, and develop a larger sense of themselves as builders of the commonwealth in the process.
Next time around ordinary citizens, schooled in such experiences of public work across differences, will need to insist on a “We the People” populist politics. In such a politics government is neither the enemy nor the savior but our meeting ground and collective instrument.
State colleges and universities committed to becoming “stewards of place” and teaching the skills of civic agency can be seedbeds and anchors for a We the People politics, in the process contributing immensely to the revitalization of our democracy.
Upcoming Event: Supporting Youth Success in St. Paul
Sponsored by Minnesota Campus Compact and the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, this gathering will offer participants the opportunity to learn about diverse communities’ perspectives on youth success (as documented through the Learning in Cities initiative’s listening sessions), to map their various efforts to support youth success in school and life, and to begin exploring potential areas for collaborative action and assessment.
Background
Last winter and spring, the Center for Democracy and Citizenship conducted 34 listening sessions, engaging 330 people who live, work or go to school in St. Paul in a conversation about youth success. The findings from these sessions are the basis of an expanded definition of youth success that is the guidepost for designing a new education platform across the city. Learning in Cities is a partnership between the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, the City of Saint Paul, the Saint Paul Public School District, the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers union, and many additional community-based organizations and individuals. Working together, we aim to ensure that young people in Saint Paul grow up in a culture of learning that spans the many learning environments that impact their academic achievement, skill development, and personal growth so that they successfully meet the demands and expectations for the 21st century. Please come to join the effort.
Location: Metro State Library room 329
Thursday November 4, 2010
1:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Registration is free and open to anyone interested in participating; simply RSVP at http://youthsuccess.eventbrite.com. Please contact Julie Plaut at julie@mncampuscompact.org or 612-436-2081 with any questions or suggestions.
Greeting from Khartoum
Mohamed Bakri, a leading journalist in the Sudan from a highly respected
family in the Horn of Africa, has been a colleague and associate of the
Center for Democracy and Citizenship since taking Harry Boyte’s graduate
seminar on civic engagement in 2007. He is now in the Sudan, exploring
possibilities for translating concepts of civic agency and public work as
well as the youth civic education initiative Public Achievement to Sudanese
society and higher education. This is his report on meetings last week:
I had my first meeting with Professor Karrar Elabaddadi, the president of
Omdurman Ahlia University on the outskirts of Khartoum. The meeting was
also attended by Prof. Faisal Awad Ahmed, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the
university, Prof Sara Nugd Alla, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and the Director
of Mohamed Omer Bashier Center.
The university’s president and his staff are very keen in introducing a
civic agency/empowerment approach to civic engagement, such as that used by
the CDC and also the African democracy institute Idasa.
There may be possibilities to begin a Sudanese civic project as a program
under Mohamed Omer Bashier Center (the center named after the late Mohamed
Omer Bashier the university founder and one of the most respected Sudanese
educators).
In addition, as background to our discussions, colleagues at Ahlia
University have completed a survey of local neighborhood interests and
concerns in Elmorada. I met with Elmorada neighborhood’s citizens. It was
a lovely round circle about the neighborhood problems and needs as citizens
see it. They talked about the deterioration of the school system, and they
want to fix it.
Innovations in Public Achievement
“Public Achievement is a way to make our dreams come true,” says D., a 7th grader at Fridley Middle School in suburban Minneapolis.
That’s lofty praise from someone who only learned about Public Achievement a few weeks ago. But it’s an early success of Fridley’s program that someone like D.—a survivor of the juvenile justice system and multiple school changes—believes that he not only has the right to dream but that school is a place where he can work to achieve his dreams.
Dennis Donovan, national organizer for Public Achievement, and coaches at Fridley Middle School.
Last month, with support from the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, Fridley began a year-long pilot of Public Achievement in Project STAR, which serves kids facing challenges that have limited their academic and social development. The 10 students in the program will be joined by 6 peer counselors—7th graders with special training and a commitment to improving the school’s social climate.
Over the next week or two, these fifth through eighth graders will be guided through a process in which they form small teams to work on two or three issues. Some of the issues they’re talking about include animal abuse, gang membership, bullying, and installation of solar panels on the school. Seventh-grader D. wants to create an alternative to the current juvenile justice system that will focus more on real strategies to help young people succeed.
The Fridley teams are being coached by students in Augsburg College’s special education and teacher licensure program.
“These students are just blossoming,” says faculty advisor Sue O’Connor. “I can see it in the kinds of questions they ask [when we debrief], their leadership and skill in working collaboratively to plan meetings, and the insights they bring to the classroom.”
Future special education teachers
O’Connor and her colleagues in the special education program learned Public Achievement concepts firsthand when they formed a group last spring to explore bringing Public Achievement into their curriculum. This year, half of the faculty group is working directly with the student coaches while the others are developing observation tools to evaluate the effects of Public Achievement on students in a special education population. They will also be evaluating the impact of Public Achievement on future teachers.
“[Public Achievement] is having an impact on us, too,” says O’Connor, citing examples of how she and other teaching faculty have become more intentional about stepping back and letting their students solve problems and make decisions.
Fridley special education teachers Michael Ricci and Alissa Blood are working closely with Augsburg faculty and students, and are providing support and continuity for their students between Public Achievement meetings.
“This project has a service-learning approach that will provide our students with the opportunity to explore their unique gifts and talents and to make meaningful contributions to our community,” says Ricci. “They will learn what it takes to navigate the process behind such things as finding shelter for the homeless or installing solar panels to save money and to minimize negative effects on the environment. It’s a real-world testing ground for them.”
Work-(community)life balance
Polls say Americans want it all: rewarding, well-paying jobs, healthy, stable and secure lives, modest material comforts, and adequate time for friends, family and community. But for many, the reality is quite different. At the upcoming symposium “Balanced Lives: Best Policies for the New Economy” Oct. 20-22 at the University of Iowa, experts from government, academia, business, and the community will explore ways to make life more rewarding in a sustainable way as we move forward in a changing economy.
At the Friday morning plenary session, Center for Democracy and Citizenship co-director Harry Boyte will give a presentation he’s calling Sobering Up: The New Citizen Politics and the Transformation of American Democracy.
Civic engagement gap
“Irresponsible political discourse and the academic achievement gap are linked to a problem that receives markedly less attention: ‘the civic engagement gap'” write Peter Levine, Scott Warren and Alison Cohen in the September 29 Huffington Post.
“There is evidence of widening disparities in civic knowledge, skills, and confidence between poor, minority and immigrant youth and adults, and middle-class or wealthy, white, and native-born youth and adults,” they continue.
More schools are becoming interested in models such as Public Achievement and Generation Citizen, which take a hands-on approach to civics education and the development of related social and academic skills.
“The next generation has the promise and potential to solve many of the problems plaguing American society,” conclude the post’s authors, “and it’s our duty to help empower them with the skills they need to be active, effective citizens.”
“When the question is the civic health of elections, the government, and the nation itself, and when the electoral process is threatening to spin out of control,” writes Harry Boyte in a follow-up to his earlier post, “we need a broad movement in which the whole citizenry works to redeem American democracy.”
Acknowledging the challenges, Boyte suggests that “college students in American Democracy Project schools can take key leadership, reminiscent of the roles students played in the civil rights movement of the 1960s.” What young people need in particular are clear pathways to engage in a sustained–rather than episodic–way.
Read Boyte’s full post on the American Democracy Project blog.
bythepeopleaugsburg
By The People 