Participatory democracy
If you’re feeling cynical or disillusioned at getting to vote every four or five years for a limited range of political parties, participative democracy may offer you something a bit more meaningful.
In contrast to representative democracy, which enables us to elect others to make decisions on our behalf, participative approaches such as partipatory budgeting and citizens juries let us get right into the nitty gritty of the decision making.
These methods involve sharing your experiences and listening to those of others, and coming to better decisions together as a result. Even better, people who take part in this joint decision-making tend to feel better about their communities and more confident as a result, and often go on to participate in other ways afterwards.
See below for some of the main approaches, policies and other resources.
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