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While I agree with you, Citizen Assemblies and Citizen Juries have a big problem, which you mention, in that they can take substantial time to build sufficient

While I agree with you, Citizen Assemblies and Citizen Juries have a big problem, which you mention, in that they can take substantial time to build sufficient momentum to take action and have impact. These things don't work if the coup has already transpired. Conversely endowing these bodies with the ability to act swiftly also brings significant risk. I'm not sure what to believe in here.

specialist 2y ago
Me neither. That said, policy work is already slow. A politic friend lobbys on behalf of working families. His org's very first legislative win was enacting modest praternity leave (IIRC). The smallest sliver of their agenda (basically a Nordic style safety net). It took EIGHTEEN YEARS. Similarly, in The Waxman Report, former Rep Henry Waxman relates the yeoman work of policy. Some of the reforms he worked on took THIRTY YEARS. In comparison, maybe Citizen Assemblies aren't so bad. It could be one of those counterintuitive "slow down to speed up" things. Back when I managed teams, I flipped most of our workflows to front load everything. Hash all the major stuff at a project's launch. Everyone HATED it. Absolutely HATED all the DISCUSSION. Let's just get to work. After ramming all my process crap down everyone's throat, my teams mostly ran themselves, always hit their deadlines, and made money. (And of course no one remembered all the initial strive.) Alas, the major downside of "continuous process improvement" is the apparent requirement of having a benevolent dictactor, enforcing empowerment and delegation. (Oh, the irony.) Backsliding is so, so easy. The impulse to gatekeep and concern troll must always be clamped down. Alas. To finish off, I'm with you. Seems like even if "more democracy" is the best answer, we've probably run out of time. Or maybe we need these ideas fleshed out, to have a plan ready, for the power vacuum resulting from tyranny's inevitable failure. I just don't know.

specialist 2y ago

Me neither. That said, policy work is already slow. A politic friend lobbys on behalf of working families. His org's very first legislative win was enacting modest praternity leave (IIRC). The smallest sliver of their agenda (basically a Nordic style safety net). It took EIGHTEEN YEARS. Similarly, in The Waxman Report, former Rep Henry Waxman relates the yeoman work of policy. Some of the reforms he worked on took THIRTY YEARS. In comparison, maybe Citizen Assemblies aren't so bad. It could be one of those counterintuitive "slow down to speed up" things. Back when I managed teams, I flipped most of our workflows to front load everything. Hash all the major stuff at a project's launch. Everyone HATED it. Absolutely HATED all the DISCUSSION. Let's just get to work. After ramming all my process crap down everyone's throat, my teams mostly ran themselves, always hit their deadlines, and made money. (And of course no one remembered all the initial strive.) Alas, the major downside of "continuous process improvement" is the apparent requirement of having a benevolent dictactor, enforcing empowerment and delegation. (Oh, the irony.) Backsliding is so, so easy. The impulse to gatekeep and concern troll must always be clamped down. Alas. To finish off, I'm with you. Seems like even if "more democracy" is the best answer, we've probably run out of time. Or maybe we need these ideas fleshed out, to have a plan ready, for the power vacuum resulting from tyranny's inevitable failure. I just don't know.