POCKET PARADIGMS

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THE DEMOCRATIC FRANCHISE, while greatly broadened from a time when only
propertied white males could vote, has lost its depth. We have, in
effect, more people sharing less power. Take, for example, the New
England town meeting, often cited as a model of direct democracy, in
which each enfranchised resident had a voice and a vote in the
proceedings of the community. By the 1990s the term's meaning had been
completely turned on its head: now it is a meeting, perhaps nationally
televised, in which citizens of a remote, impermeable government listen
to, and are cynically manipulated by, an official or candidate. All
three key elements of the original town meeting -- community,
decentralized power and direct democracy -- have decayed and
disappeared. Other traditional signs of a vibrant democracy have been
either distorted or enfeebled. We are apathetic in our voting, removed
from our representatives, regularly deceived in our discussions and
ineffectual in our efforts to change our conditions.- Sam Smith

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