Washblog

Jefferson thought that even counties in colonial Virginia were too large for citizens to really engage in their government. So he dreamed of enshrining in law a smaller level of government, the ward republic:

The counties were too large for direct participation of all the voters, thought Jefferson, but dividing the counties into "wards of such size as that every citizen can attend, when called on, and act in person ... will relieve the county administration of nearly all its business, will have it better done, and by making every citizen an acting member of the government, and in the offices nearest and most interesting to him, will attach him by his strongest feelings to the independence of his country, and its republican constitution."

The idea of the ward republic is that government closest to citizens would encourage participation and that particiapition would make government better reflect what people actually wanted. It would have been government on a human scale. We live in a time of low citizen participation, when less than a 30 percent turn out in an election isn't all that surprising. I don't think its bizzare to try to reverse that.

And, actually, the I-24 idea has been the focus of legislation in Olympia recently. SB 5346 (with six sponsors) and HB 1770 (15 sponsors) sought to establish a similar network of citizen groups:

There is a need to create a citizen councilor network of small discussion groups, open to all citizens, self-funded, and using symbolic and sustainable dialogue to communicate among political and economic leaders and the people at large.

Governments have been unable to discuss the merits of citizen participation and zeitgeist communication in a substantive manner to this date.

The passage of Initiative Measure No. 695 in 1999, Initiative Measure No. 776 in 2002, and the defeat of Referendum Measure No. 53 in 2002 are social indicators that governments, business, media, and community organizations need improved listening skills in order to substitute human responsibility for futile strife and hatreds.