Democracy Rising posts are curated by Tom Prugh. Tom is a former senior researcher at Worldwatch Institute and the editor in chief of World Watch magazine. He co-directed the Institute’s State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy, State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible? and State of the World 2014: Governing for Sustainability. In 2013 he was also lead writer and editor for the Royal Government of Bhutan’s New Development Paradigm initiative. Tom is the lead author of two books: The Local Politics of Global Sustainability (with Robert Costanza and Herman Daly) and Natural Capital and Human Economic Survival (with Robert Costanza, John H. Cumberland, Herman Daly, Robert Goodland, and Richard B. Norgaard).
Deliberative Democracy and Gaianism: Natural Complements
By Tom Prugh, Gaianism
Deliberative democracy (DD) shares some key features with Gaianism and is intrinsically compatible with it, to the point that Gaians might think about taking an interest in practicing and promoting DD.
Democracy Rising 11: Doorways into Deliberation
By Courtney Breese, Tom Prugh, Resilience.org
Deliberation is key to public engagement work as well, enabling people to discuss the consequences, costs, and trade-offs of various policy options, and to work through the emotions that tough public decisions raise.
Democracy Rising 5: Deliberation’s Long and Winding Road
By Tom Prugh, Resilience.org
We believe that a deep form of democracy based on citizen deliberation is the best form of governance for human beings and that this is a good time to start building it, regardless of what the future brings.
Democracy Rising 4: This is your brain on deliberation
By Tom Prugh, Resilience.org
Deliberation creates a process for educating ourselves—and each other—into citizenship and gives rise to what Daniel Kemmis has called “neighborliness—to finding within shared space the possibilities for a shared inhabitation.”
Democracy Rising 2: Nine Short Arguments for Deliberative Democracy
By Tom Prugh, Resilience.org
Our belief and focus in this series is that the dysfunction at the top of our system is both a cause and a consequence of what's broken at the bottom, and that the power of deliberative democracy is fundamental to fixing that.
Democracy Rising 1 Introduction: Idiots Я Us
By Tom Prugh, Resilience.org
Our aim is to support a movement of “democracy preppers” who want to stockpile social and community capital rather than dried beans and ammunition.