[PEN-L:29866] "participatory democracy"

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Title: "participatory democracy"

Awhile back, pen-l had a discussion of so-called "participatory democracy." FWIW, I found a discussion of this concept in THE NATION [August 5/12, 2002], by Tom Hayden & Dick Flacks, two authors of the Port Huron Statement of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), which brought this concept forward back in 1962:

"The phrase 'participatory democracy' derived from the influence of Arnold Kaufman, a professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan who had taught Tom and other SDSers and who attended the convention as a speaker. Kaufman used the term to signify that democracy, as defined in conventional liberal discourse, was far too limited when reduced to electoral choice and concepts like the free marketplace of ideas. Kaufman's case for participatory democracy flowed directly from John Dewey's writings in the 1920s and '30s. ... Dewey was not at all satisfied with the state of left politics in his time; for most of his life he searched for a 'new left' himself, an alternative to the ideology and practice of the established socialist organizations of his day. What motivated that search was a deep sense that a radical political and cultural force was needed if democracy in its fullest sense was to be made possible.

"Dewey's definition of democracy was explicitly participatory: 'All those who are affected by social institutions must have a share in producing and managing them,' he declared, adding that 'a democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint community experience.' He argued that such participation is necessary both for the general welfare  and for the fullest development of individuals and that such a principle should be applied not only in the political sphere as we understand it but in the spheres of family and childraising, in school, in business and in religion."

Of course, this "participatory democracy" is different from the kind (that SDS had) that involves endless meetings that tend to be dominated by those who can stay the longest.

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Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine