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Using the tools of democracy

June 28, 2004 By Uncategorized

Using the tools of democracy

I voted today.

Like all elections, I stuffed my ballot in the box and a little voice said �Is that it? People have died for this?�

Elections are always anti-climactic. Thirty-five days of being bombarded by messages and courted by spin leading to one moment � barely one second � when we mark an X in a circle and are done with it, somehow unsure if our singular contribution matters.

Many Canadians will not vote today precisely because they feel too small to make a difference, even in an election like this where small margins will tilt the balance of power. We labour under the misconception that voting is all there is to democracy, that it is the fundamental act. To lose faith in the power of the franchise then is to let go of the last apparent connection to the levers of power. For most people, to quit voting is to give in. It is the last act of capitulation before the clamouring politicians.

As the old adage goes �if voting could change the system, it would be illegal.� I happen to believe that voting IS important. But more important than voting is engagement because that adage is true: systemic change has nothing to do with voting. It has to do with citizens banding together to improve society regardless of government. Democracy is not about the freedom to vote � it is about the freedom and responsibility to act. It may be in fact that voting is the last freedom to be taken away � witness the former USSR or much of present day China. Autocratic and totalitarian, these states nevertheless preserved the sanctity of voting even while all other societal freedoms had been stripped away.

No, democracy is not about voting, and democratic societies do not advance, thrive and evolve because people vote every few years. They evolve because people use the tools of democracy to create societies that thrive: free speech, freedom of association, freedom to move. These are the tools of civil society.

Creating and maintaining a truly open and democratic society is founded in the individual responsibility of people to �live in truth� as Vaclav Havel said. I�ve blogged this before, but it bears repeating. This is form Jonathan Schell�s The Unconquerable World:

By living within the lie – that is, conforming to the system’s demands – Havel says, “individuals confirm the system, fulfill the system, make the system, are the system.” A “line of conflict” is then drawn through each person who is invited in the countless decisions of daily life to choose between living in truth and living in the lie. Living in truth – directly doing in your immediate surroundings, what you think needs doing, saying what you think is true and needs saying , acting the way you think people should act – is a form of protest, Havel admits, against living in the lie, and so those who try to live in truth are indeed an opposition. But that is neither all they are or the main thing they are. Before living in truth is a protest, it is an affirmation.

— Schell, p.196

This is the way we build and maintain democratic civil society.

I�m getting ready to head off to Chicago on July 8 for a conference called The Open Space Giving Conference. It is all about how we use the tools of democratic civil society, including our own personal resources of talent, time, purpose and money, to create the kind of world we want, the kind that is promised by marking ballot, but the kind of world which only comes to life when citizens act together to bring it to life.

So as preparation for that conference, over the next few days, I�ll be posting a series of pieces on some of the hidden tools of democratic society, the tools we all possess that allow us to live in truth, even if the world around is exhorting us not to. These are the tools that, rich or poor, we all bring to the table. They are the tools that take us from purpose to vision to action, and invite us to all take hold of the mantle of leadership.

If you are coming to the conference, consider this an invitation to begin the conversation now.