innovations in public participation...

participedia...

participedia is a tool for democrats. it aims to create and gather public knowledge to deepen democracy. based on a wiki platform, its main content consists of user-generated articles which describe and assess participatory governance throughout the world. for instance, there will be articles on the british columbia citizens’ assembly of 2004, consensus conferences in denmark, participatory budgeting in porto alegre and other cities, local school council governance in chicago, municipal evaluation meetings in china, the panchayati raj reforms in india, and the people’s campaign for democratic decentralization (under the panchayati raj reforms) in kerala, india. in addition, there will be articles on participatory methods, such as deliberative polling, citizens' assemblies, and participatory budgeting, as well as articles about the organizations that sponsor, implement, and study participatory governance. over time, we hope participedia will garner hundreds and perhaps thousands of such articles//

cameron on the next age of gov...

when the people speak...

all over the world, democratic reforms have brought power to the people, but under conditions where the people have little opportunity to think about the power that they exercise. in this book, james fishkin combines a new theory of democracy with actual practice and shows how an idea that harks back to ancient athens can be used to revive our modern democracies. the book outlines deliberative democracy projects conducted by the author with various collaborators in the united states, china, britain, denmark, australia, italy, bulgaria, northern ireland, and in the entire european union. these projects have resulted in the massive expansion of wind power in texas, the building of sewage treatment plants in china, and greater mutual understanding between catholics and protestants in northern ireland. the book is accompanied by a DVD of "europe in one room" by emmy award-winning documentary makers paladin invision. the film recounts one of the most challenging deliberative democracy efforts with a scientific sample from 27 countries speaking 21 languages//

europe in one room...

top economist predicts end of global economy...

jeff rubin is not an oil alarmist—he doesn’t think that the world’s supply of crude will run out and cause resource wars and food shortages of apocalyptic proportions. in fact, he doesn’t even think the world’s supply of crude is running out at all. rubin made this clear as he addressed the business of climate change conference in toronto last september, opening his keynote address with the statement, “the world’s not running out of oil.” however, after milking the pause for a second or two, rubin went on: “but it has already run out of oil it can afford to burn.” in short, rubin emphatically believes that two intensifying and antagonistic trends will cause a blast-off of crude oil prices in the next 15 months: exponentially-increasing demand for oil tied to the global economy and the ever-accelerating depletion of conventional (cheap) oil reserves. instead of calling for government action to avert the crisis-causing apex of these two trends, rubin thinks the crisis will be addressed by local and individual action driven by market forces. “the prices needed to get unconventional oil out of the ground are the same prices that will get you off the road,” he explained. he elaborated by predicting that stratospheric oil prices would force consumers and producers alike to change behaviours that would eventually lead to a breakdown of the global economy and a return to local economies// josh garrett, 02.01.10, heatingoil.com

policy interventions needed "from cradle to grave" to counter entrenched inequalities...

the independent national equality panel, chaired by LSE's professor john hills, argues that policy interventions are needed at each life cycle stage to counter the way economic inequalities are reinforced over people's lives and often on to the next generation. the panel found that deep-seated and systematic differences remain between social groups across all of the dimensions the panel examines, although some of the widest gaps have narrowed in the last decade. professor hills said: "most people and nearly all political parties subscribe to the ideal of 'equality of opportunity'. but advantage and disadvantage reinforce themselves over the life cycle. it is hard to argue that the large and systematic differences in outcomes which we document result from personal choices made against a background of equality of opportunity, however that is defined." the report and a summary are available here//