Here are some links that you might find useful or interesting. Some are relevant to the topic of Active Democracy, some are not. If you would like your web-site to be listed on this page, or you want to suggest a link, please contact Lyn Carson.
Awarded by the German Bertelsmann Stiftung "to a governmental institution - possibly in cooperation with a non-governmental actor - which has initiated successful projects (or programs) to vitalize democracy, to integrate under-represented citizens and to establish new forms of democratic problem-solving capacities through participation." The 2011 award went to the city of Recife, Brazil for their Participatory Budget process.
21st Century Dialogue is an Australian business, specialising in community engagement that maximises opportunities for inclusiveness and deliberation. It's led by Janette Hartz-Karp (now Associate Professor at Murdoch University) who has convened more deliberative, democratic processes than anyone I know.
One of the most interesting examples that has been trialled of inclusive deliberation, one that was integrated with parliamentary practices: in British Columbia, Canada in 2005. Unfortunately the site does not discuss the outcomes of the referendum but you can find that elsewhere if you use a search engine.
What about the possibility of choosing Congress through a process of random selection? Michael Phillips and Ernest Callenbach argue the case for random selection in their book Citizen Legislature.
Australia's first combined televote and citizens' jury, convened by Institute for Sustainable Futures; check out Volume 3 of Final Report on Container Deposit Legislation
Sponsored the Australian Citizens Parliament in 2009 to consider how Australia should improve its democratic system. Download the Handbook about this national-scale deliberative process, with subsidiary information in a separate Appendix
The planning cell (planungszelle ®)
is a German consultation method, originally developed by Peter
Dienel (University of Wuppertal). The planning cell shares some of the attributes
of the US
citizens' juries, designed by Ned Crosby (Jefferson Center).
Both the planning cell and the citizens' jury emerged in the mid 1970s.
