Why the European Citizens’ Initiative merits radical reform On the 1st of April 2014, the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) turned two — its unfortunate birthdate determined by EU translation services. Called the first transnational tool of “direct participatory democracy” and “digital democracy” in history, the ECI is a complex procedure by which a million EU …
This article is from the upcoming publication “An ECI That Works!” to be released on 15 April 2014 by The ECI Campaign. In 2010-2011, I campaigned for a citizen-friendly ECI regulation and then left the EU before it went into effect. Below I compare what I and others thought would happen with the ECI to …
What didn’t happen with the European Citizens’ Initiative…and what did Read More »
Face-to-face events like public meetings and consultations are, with good reason, at the heart of much public engagement. They provide a dedicated block of time and a common space to learn about, discuss, and gather community input into public issues. However, no matter how well designed the event, such gatherings are pointless if nobody shows …
Engaging on the Edges: Creative Street and Online Engagement Read More »
Occupy Targets Participatory Budgeting in Chicago My first thought was “how clever of the conference organizers to welcome us with street theater”. At the entrance to the Second North American Participatory Budgeting Conference, held last month in Chicago, stood a half-dozen casually dressed people wearing photo face masks and holding hand-written signs with questions like …
I honestly didn’t realize just how ambitious trying to understand the use of dialogue & deliberation for civic engagement in Chicago actually was until a veteran facilitator exclaimed “wow, you’ve taken on a mighty big project!” After all, at first, I couldn’t find much happening in the Windy City. As the project progressed, it certainly …
Surveying the D&D Territory of a City: Lessons from Chicago Read More »
Over a long and rainy weekend in Seattle, I joined members of the US-based National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD) in a trendy downtown eco hotel for their semi-annual conference. NCDD celebrated their 10th anniversary as an organisation by taking on the monumental challenge of envisioning a robust “civic infrastructure” for public dialogue and …
Americans envision a civic infrastructure for public dialogue and deliberation Read More »
Several years ago, after a lifetime in the heartland of America, I moved to the heart of the European Union. Having heard Brussels described as the Washington, D.C. of Europe, I expected to see politicians from opposing parties insulting each other, lobbyists bearing checks as they flitted between campaign fundraisers, and legislation to benefit ordinary …
You’ll miss Europe if we kill it: the EU benefits the world more than people appreciate Read More »
Direct democracy can seem at times like a troublesome, unloved child in the family of democratic tools. A major reason may be press accounts of the American state of California which blame direct democracy for that state’s fiscal problems. To learn more, I joined a direct democracy study tour of California, Arizona and Oregon. It …
The eyes of the American public participation community are riveted on the Pacific Northwest state of Oregon. It recently became the first American state to institutionalise a citizens jury-style process to improve one method of lawmaking known as the citizens’ initiative. The tale of how the Oregon Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR) made it into state …
North-Westward ho! Oregon embeds public participation in lawmaking Read More »
A friend recently asked me to sign a petition opposing a soon-to-be-implemented EU directive which will effectively ban many herbal medicines. Putting aside the merits of the topic, my first reaction was “Why so late? The directive was approved in 2004!” It seemed a perfect example of how citizens typically first learn about EU decisions: …
Putting EU citizens before lobbyists: is the ECI the tool? Read More »