California Democracy: Crisis meets opportunity
It seems the there’s a hot proposal in California to convene a constitutional convention in the form of a randomly selected citizen deliberative council — and to make the ability to do that, as needed, part of the law of the State. This would be a profound step in the development of democracy. (See the New Yorker article “The States We’re In” http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2009/08/24/090824taco_talk_hertzberg )
This initiative has gotten some important endorsements and is rising in popularity and just might happen, given the rapid degradation of California’s democracy and economy. If you’d like to find out more, or support it, or perhaps start an initiative of your own like this, check out their website http://www.repaircalifornia.org . Or try the quiet version of radical democratic reform — Citizens Initiative Review — being promoted by Healthy Democracy Oregon http://www.healthydemocracyoregon.org/about_CIR . Hopefully something like that will be in the new California constitution. If you live in California, write it in as a suggestion.
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