Modern Direct Democracy by Initiative and Referendum in the United States was first known as the "Oregon System." Now, with a president as a living antithesis to enlightened government, Oregonians are again called to offer an engaged way forward. And they are good at doing that, reports Bruno Kaufmann from Portland.
It´s not just your #deardemocracy editor who is currently travelling around the world: the @realDonaldTrump - the president of the United States since January 20, 2017 – is crisscrossing the globe. While the 45th president sold "beautiful weapons" to "wonderful regimes" in the Middle East, many Americans felt some short-term relief after exhausting weeks and days of growing incredulity at the chaos in and around the White House. Of course, most people here in America do understand that democracy here has challenges far bigger than the current occupant of the Oval Office. Touching down in the "City of Roses",”Portland in the Pacific Northwest", I got some indications where the US could go in the (possibly not so far away) Post-Trump era.
"The 2016 election was a wake-up call", said Peggy Holman (pictured above with mic), Executive Director at the Portland-based nonprofit "Journalism that Matters", and chair of a fascinating three-day event at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. More than 130 journalists, civic educators and researchers met to develop new forms of community-based journalism, as - one participant said – "key democratic infrastructure."
Technology plays into this, allowing traditional "consumers" of media to become "co-producers." But it´s also important that the journalists themselves bring their "competence" and "attitude" to community-related journalism. "You always have to ask, where is the active citizen in your story", one newsroom editor from a newspaper in southern Oregon said at the "Elevate Engagement" conference, which saw participants not just from the Beaver State but from all across the US and the world. It is not by accident, that democracy reporters and supporters gathered in this big state (250´000 square kilometesr) with few people (4 million). Oregon is and has been a great place of innovation and inspiration for a whole nation since it´s establishment as an US state in 1859.
Six times, the men of Oregon voted about the introduction of female voting rights - more than any other place on earth – before adopting the reform in 1912.
Years before those votes, a New York journalist, John W. Sullivan, was inspired to travel to Switzerland to study the initiative and referendum process there. After reading Sullivan´s book, a Swiss-emigrant in Portland established a trans-Atlantic communication and exchange process by letter, finally leading to the introduction of a comprehensive form of citizen lawmaking in Oregon. While a majority of US states later introduced some forms of direct democracy, the "Oregon System" has been ever since the most vibrant and frequently used: the state holds the records for the most statewide initiatives–there were 395 between 1904 and 2014–the highest average initiative use, and the most statewide initiatives on the ballot in a single year: 27 in 1912.
In contrast to its southern neighbour California, where direct democracy is also frequent but not well-balanced and is often misused by big money groups, Oregon has been more successful in developing an open society with a great amount of social cohesion and environment-friendly policies. But as traditional media has receded (the state´s biggest newspaper is only available at newsstands three weeks) and public conversations ahead of important votes have changed character through social media, "Healthy Democracy" -an NGO- developed a powerful deliberative format ahead of popular votes. The form is now part of the official preparation process for citizen´s initiatives; its results are included in the official printed voter pamphlet in both English and Spanish.
As I was about to leave the truly livable city of Portland at the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers, with the snowy Mount Hood (3428 m) in the backdrop, I felt privileged to have experienced yet another example of why this place can be seen as one the most advanced laboratories for democracy innovation both in the US and across the globe.
Bruno Kaufmann in Portland on May 20
#deardemocracy world tour notebook
#deardemocracy is a media initiative hosted by the Swiss Broadcasting Company and the Swiss Democracy Foundation to support active citizenship and participatory democracy across the world. It offers journalistic materials in ten languages, publishes op-eds from independent authors, and composes guides for day-to-day democratic practices. #deardemocracy invites everybody to join the conversation and cooperates with media organizations and democracy support organizations globally. Between May 9 and 24 the editor of people2power.info - one of the key #deardemocracy partners - is visiting places around the world and shares here his daily observations of the democracy he encounters.
