Calling Citizens: Your Voice Should Be Heard – A Look at Participatory Democracy and Civic Virtue

Do you feel like your voice is heard? Do your elected representatives hear, understand, and address the issues that relate directly to your life?

If not, join the crowd. But why is this, and what can be done about it?

Ready for an eye-opening discussion that might just turn your perception of democracy on its head?

You’ll explore:

1) What it would look like to have a radically participatory democracy
2) The intersection of municipal budget talks, justice, and morality
3) Unexpected consequences of council democracy, including giving minorities more of a voice

Shmuel Lederman, PhD is a research fellow in the Weiss-Livnat International Center for Holocaust Research and Education at the University of Haifa. His primary interest lies in the study of council democracy, wherein any and all citizens from the neighborhood level come together to debate, deliberate, and act together on matters that concern them, and then choose a representative to go to the upper council and parliament.

In short, rather than a parliament elected by vote, there’s a parliament elected by a pyramid of delegates, starting at the neighborhood level.

Learn how his form of traditional participatory democracy can give more power to minorities, promote civic virtue, bring fellow citizens closer together, emphasize the role of morality in budget decision-making, and more.

Tune in for the full conversation.

Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/38oMlMr