Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Double Standards on the Left

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Double Standards on the Left

Click here to access article by Sveinung Legard from New Compass.

I am not so much interested with his criticism of the "left" in Norway as I am about his interesting discussion about participatory democracy.

Democracy is first and foremost a question of power. If the members of a society collectively can make the substantive decisions governing the means of production and other social conditions in society – and if all the members of that society have equal opportunities to participate in those decision-making processes – we can talk about a direct or participatory democracy. If we cannot, it is not a direct or participatory democracy.