What you're looking at is a new site for CitizenSovereignty.org. Pardon the mess. We're still under construction, and we don't blog much as yet. Look at the What's New list (top left) for our latest news and views.
CitSov's mission is educational. We are interested in exploring new ways for
more people to participate in political life. To that end, two books by CitSov
founders present big ideas on deliberative democracy and small donor democracy.
Deliberation Day is a detailed proposal for a national holiday of
deliberation in advance of elections. The immodest goal is a change in
American political culture, away from spin-induced cynicism and towards greater
popular engagement. To make our way toward that goal, CitSov works to
promote the use of Deliberative Polls, which measure what public opinion would
be if people had the opportunity to sort through the issues, sort out the spin,
and spur the political players to inform more and posture less.
Voting With Dollars, too, presents a detailed proposal whose purpose is political culture change. The goal is to involve every American in the political "wealth primary" through innovative public financing, and to eliminate cynicism about private money in politics by keeping it truly private; anonymous, in fact. VWD's innovations are Patriot dollars (vouchers for campaign contributions) and the Secret Donation Booth (mandatory anonymity for private money contributors). The idea is to give politicians the incentive to spend more time with the voters, who each would have fifty Patriot dollars to invest in the politicians of their choice; and, to make private money investments in politicians less important.
The sidebars are repositories of information on deliberative democacy and small donor democracy, mostly written
by CitSov co-founders Bruce Ackerman and Ian Ayres of Yale, and Jim Fishkin of Stanford. They are the
co-authors of Deliberation Day (Bruce and Jim) and Voting With
Dollars (Bruce and Ian).
Once initial construction is over, we will blog and post new links on ideas and events regularly.
We invite your comments and look forward to getting to know you.
Sincerely,
Bill Corbett
CitizenSovereignty.org
