Humainologie creative dialogue on Civility and Democracy with MP Mike Lake facilitiating tomorrow
- Arthur Clark
- Feb 1, 2022
- 7 min read
“I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Use empathy, thoughtfulness and kindness in your interactions and think before you speak. A kind word is long remembered.” ― Cindy Ann Peterson, The Power of Civility: Top Experts Reveal the Secrets to Social Capital
"I do not think the measure of a civilization is how tall its buildings of concrete are, but rather how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man."- Sun Bear, Chippewa
Our dialogue on Civility and Democracy, to be facilitated by MP Mike Lake, is tomorrow, Wednesday February 2, starting at 6:30 PM Calgary time.
In a previous email you received some suggestions for preparing your contribution to the dialogue, starting with the suggestion to prepare at least one good question to ask Mike Lake. With this email I’ll provide Part II of my synopsis of the book by Dave Meslin, Teardown: Rebuilding Democracy from the Ground Up; and some additional material that – if you take time to review it – may be helpful to you. The Zoom link for joining the dialogue is also provided herewith.
Democracy has an inherent instability. It can lead through demagoguery into tyranny. If we become bystanders and leave important decisions about governance to “leaders,” then we can expect bad outcomes. Good outcomes require civility to bring genuine democracy to life.
The inherent fragility of democracy is immediately apparent in such acts of violence as the use of a firearm by a member of parliament in the Jordanian parliament building https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye751qMjBmcand other acts of violence by members of various parliaments around the world https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPg96x3pP1E The occasional roughhousing that takes place in the House of Commons in Canada https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUtCFRp6wBw might seem pale by comparison, yet it too is part of a deeply adversarial process and has raised awareness of the need for change
Transformation of our political culture is essential. As a gold standard, we might keep in mind the Indigenous process of governance by consensus. In his book about rebuilding democracy, Dave Meslin essentially devotes Chapter 6 to the need for civility in political discourse. In that chapter he refers to an article by Dr. Kahente Horn-Miller, “What Does Indigenous Participatory Democracy Look Like? Kahnawà:ke’s Community Decision Making Process” https://www.constitutionalstudies.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/05_Horn-Miller-1-1.pdf in which she describes consensus-based decision-making.
Here is the Zoom link for tomorrow night, Wednesday February 2, provided by Shinobu:
Topic: Humainologie Dialogue Session Time: February 2, 2022 06:30 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada) Every week on Wed, until Feb 23, 2022, 8 occurrence(s) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86365003921?pwd=RkRVQVkvaHhML3FoYkRybHpOak1UUT09 Meeting ID: 863 6500 3921 Passcode: 12345
Arthur
Book: (Dave Meslin) Teardown: Rebuilding Democracy from the Ground Up (2019)
This is Part II of my synopsis of this important book. In Chapter 3, “Better Ballots,” the author describes our current system of elections as a form of “coup,” because one party can take complete control of the government when the majority of Canadians did not even vote for that party. The most basic system for effective voter representation described in Chapter 3 is pure proportional representation (pure PR), which “has no electoral districts at all. …Instead, each party produces a list of nominees for the entire country or region, chosen democratically by members of the party. Then, on election day, voters simply choose their favourite party and seats are allocated from the lists proportionate to the party’s vote.” If a party receives 60% of the votes nationwide, it gets 60% of the seats in parliament. (However, political parties and how they work internally is a serious problem which the author addresses in Chapter 5.) Chapter 3 describes innovative and effective ways to enhance voter influence on elections, including one launched in the city of Seattle in 2017. Every voter receives four coupons called “Democracy Dollars” or “Democracy Vouchers,” each of them worth 25 dollars of public money, which they can give to the candidate or candidates of their choice, to fund that candidate’s campaign. Of systems actually in practice, this may be the best way to take down the influence of the billionaires. Prior to 2017 the Seattle election was “dominated by big money, and less than 50 percent of total donations came from small contributions. But in 2017, that number jumped to 87 percent.”
Chapter 4, “Bribes, Winks, and Nods,” quotes Bernie Sanders: “We need to get big money out of politics and restore our democracy to combat a corrupted political system controlled by deep-pocketed special interests and the billionaire class.” Dave Meslin agrees but emphasizes that “we seem to be going in circles in a kind of political Groundhog Day.” In Canada, we have known about political bribery at least since our first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, “resigned in disgrace after newspapers revealed that he’d not only accepted a bribe but actively pursued it.” Since then, “excessive private influence has become a normal and legal part of our system. To put it more bluntly, our political system has evolved into a sophisticated enabler of mass institutionalized bribery.” Meslin describes a variety of countermeasures that have been successful. In New York City, a program was introduced whereby small donations ($175 or less) are multiplied at a 6:1 ratio by the city government. This was particularly popular in neighborhoods with higher poverty rates and concentrations of minority residents, and “the first NYC election that used the new system produced the city’s first African American Mayor.” Meslin concludes the chapter re-emphasizing that we need bold reforms, or we will perpetuate “the political Groundhog Day that has seen private interests dominate our political culture for 150 years.”
In Chapter 5, “It’s my Party (and I’ll Cry if I Want to)” Meslin refers to a book by Alison Loat and Michael MacMillan, Tragedy in the Commons: Former Members of Parliament Speak Out about Canada’s Failing Democracy. The authors did exit interviews with former MPs. Meslin’s summary is as follows: “Despite holding the highest level of elected office in the country, most of the MPs felt that they had no voice. Instead, they felt ’controlled,’ ’manipulated’ and even ’bullied’ by the offices of their respective party leaders.” And Meslin’s additional quotes indicate that maybe parliament is at risk of becoming redundant. His commentary is that “if our MPs don’t have a voice, then neither do we.” How to fix this? Not so simple. Without parties, Meslin suggests, the large number of factions would present its own problems. Most of Chapter 5 therefore describes ways to improve the existing party system, including giving much more power to caucus and controlling the near-dictatorial power of party leaders. Meslin urges readers to join a party – even to join all the parties – and influence the party from within.
Chapter 6, “Blood Sport,” describes the incivility that characterizes so many of the interactions in the Canadian House of Commons, and then suggests ways to restore civility. These include explicit training in civility for members of Parliament. He mentions a company called Anima Leadership, which provides evidence-based training in such areas as conflict transformation and dialogue skills, emotional intelligence and mindfulness tools, and more. The company has been hired by organizations in the public, private, and non-profit sectors, with excellent outcomes. Meslin also contrasts how seats are assigned in the Canadian House of Commons, with how they are assigned in parliaments of Norway, Sweden, and Iceland, where seats are assigned either randomly or according to the geographical region represented by the member. Members of different political parties are seated side by side rather than in the polarized seating used in Canada. Meslin also describes how Indigenous leaders had set an example of governing by consensus, and then notes: “Sadly, many Indigenous communities in Canada no longer use consensus models. Part of the colonial assault on their culture included the forced transition to a Western-style governance model.”
Chapter 7, “Taking the Reins,” is about increasing citizens’ participation in governance. “To be clear, I’m not a fan of replacing government with direct democracy.” Meslin explains that large groups of decision-makers tend to lose the advantage of smaller groups that have a focus on the issue at hand: “Direct democracy, as a replacement for legislatures and councils, would give us more democratic width but less depth. But the other extreme – giving away all our power to politicians – is equally foolish. There’s ample room for us to experiment with the rigidness of our current representative model.” Meslin turns the widespread view (that ordinary people are not qualified to make important decisions) 180 degrees to show that it is how the process is designed that determines whether you tap into the genius of the people. Meslin examines one case in detail to show that it provides evidence that “stupid systems with stupid rules will deliver stupid results.” There are also details of participatory budgeting, Montreal’s Right of Initiative, and seven features for designing a highly effective referendum. In participatory budgeting (PB), city residents decide how to use a portion of public money, the largest example being in New York City where the allocation of $38 million was decided by PB. Montreal and other places specify steps a group of citizens can take to bring a proposal to a vote in the legislature.
Chapter 8, “Street Neutrality” is about billboards, local culture, and freedom of speech. Meslin describes how “on a shoe-string budget.” they defeated a multi-million- dollar proposal to install a gigantic billboard in a public space. Meslin “designed, printed, and hand-delivered notices to dozens of households in the area to let residents know about the proposed monstrosity.” The residents called their councillor, who invited Meslin to talk to the advertising company. Meslin did so and politely said: No billboard, period. Four American states – Vermont, Maine, Hawaii, and Alaska – have banned billboards altogether. Instead of billboards, Meslin is in favor of making public space for local expression, for example with poster boards where neighbors can put up their posters of local events and initiatives. Again, he describes things of this kind that have been done, including a set of chalk boards inviting neighbours to contribute to ongoing and evolving neighborhood conversations. In New Orleans, a local artist designed a wall inviting people to finish the sentence: “Before I die, I want to….” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uebxlIrosiM This was wildly successful, inspiring many such walls worldwide.
Information, navigation, and motivation are needed to empower the average citizen to become an effective activist. Chapter 9, “Seeds of Change,” explains that “people are more than happy to invest a little time and energy into democratic participation if they feel informed, are provided a clear and practical way to engage and are convinced that their investment will produce results.” The author makes a critical distinction between upstream and downstream changes – those actions that go after the root causes and those actions that address only the consequences. Giving food and clothing to the poor is a downstream change and you will be praised for that; going after the root causes of poverty can get you into trouble. It was a Brazilian archbishop whose familiar observation made the point, “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.”
Even with this long (two-part) synopsis, I have given only a glimpse of the excellent resources here. If you care about democracy, this book is for you. Please read it.
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