Can you handle the truth?

A few weeks ago, Joe Klein wrote an editorial in Time Magazine. The big idea wasn't new, but it's always intriguing - perhaps because it rarely actually happens. The idea is deliberative democracy, and it goes all the way back to ancient Athens. The kleroterion, he explains, was like a giant lottery ball picker-outer, and all the eligible citizens (free males, in Athens' case) had a lottery ball in the pot. Every day, several hundred lottery balls would be selected, and it would be the task of those men to make major decisions for the people of their city.

And what's more, it's happening even now! In Zeguo, China, 175 people are selected every year to make decisions for the district. They represent a cross-section of the society (60% of them are farmers). The procedure goes something like this: they are polled on their opinions on issues; they get briefed by disagreeing experts; they meet in small groups and come up with questions for the experts; they meet in a big group and have their questions answered; more small meetings; another big meeting; then a final poll. Astonishingly, 70% of people change their opinion during the course of this meet-and-discuss format.

But wait, the fun isn't over yet. It's even happened here in the U.S.! A consortium of utilities in Texas put together a deliberative democracy process, and the members (customers of the utility) eventually agreed that it was best if everyone (including the people voting!) paid more so that they could install reliable wind energy resources. Imagine that!

Just a few weeks before the Time editorial, there was an article in The Economist about job creation. Buried within that article, and somewhere in the back of my brain, was a reference to YouCut, a Republican initiative designed to give the public a chance to be heard. Here's how it works: you go to the website, read about federal programs on the chopping block, decide where you want to cut spending, and text your vote to the number provided. The first project cut was a "scheme to subsidize jobs for the poor." The second week, it was a federal employee pay raise. We're now nine weeks in, and the score card is available here.

All of this seems shocking to me. Why? Probably because I'm totally disillusioned and can't stand politics or anything related to it. Yeah, but why? Because it's all a dirty game.

But maybe it doesn't have to be. Joe Klein quotes James Fiskin, a Stanford University professor who has been studying deliberative democracy for 20 years: "If you give people choices and real consequences, they will make real decisions." What a revolutionary idea.