Singing to Interrupt in Tokyo; Cascais Congrats; Bridges to Belem

ALSO: The U.S. Crisis; Video from Ecuador to Colorado, New Events and Serious Fun

Photo credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia

Welcome to the monthly newsletter from Democracy Local, a planetary publication of stories, ideas, data, scholarship, and events about everyday people governing themselves. More about us here. Donations to democracy.community, which hosts our publication, can be made here. Please feel to sign up here or subscribe to our Substack.

HOW TO INTERRUPT A LOCAL PUBLIC MEETING? SING A SONG

Is no one listening? Want to get a word in during a local public meeting? Shouting and protests are frequently used—but ineffective. Shouts make people mad and feel like an interruption.

On a recent visit to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, Joe Mathews heard a better way to interrupt.

Sing!

In order to interrupt an assembly meeting, a leader of a small left-wing party in the Assembly began to sing. She had a powerful and lovely voice. Five other members of her party did a little back-up singing. And soon she was heard, respectfully, without rancor.

I didn’t recognize the tune. I was sitting in the press gallery in the assembly, which—unfortunately—doesn’t allow access to the assembly floor and members. Singing isn’t standard practice I was told by press and aides. But it has become a pleasant way to make sure you are heard.

Is this worth trying where you engage with local government?

OR MAYBE SERVE FOOD?

The U.S.-based National Civic League outlined the case—and many case studies—of how food can connect us and inspire democracy. Wouldn’t it be interesting to interrupt a city parliament or school board meeting that is going off the rails by handing out egg rolls, or donuts or lemonade?

How might a better local meeting look? Consider Boulder, Colorado.

And what does a truly innovative town in democracy and civic engagement look like? Check out Governing.com’s interview with city administrator Mark McAvoy in Liberty Lake, Washington.

CONGRATS, CASCAIS!

Cascais, a coastal municipality of 214,000 people in Portugal’s Lisbon District, has won the competition to be the European Capital of Democracy for 2026.

This is, so far, the world’s biggest prize for achievements in local democracy. Winning cities put on a year of programming and events devoted to democracy. The prize is part of a larger effort to build a network of democratic cities, with data that allows instructive comparisons on local governance.

Cascais, which I visited last year, is a worthy winner. Part suburb, part coastal resort town, Cascais has perhaps the most fully developed infrastructure for local democracy I’ve encountered. It’s at the top globally in the use of participatory budgeting; every Cascais resident lives walking distance from a participatory budgeting project. Cascais’ full, 47-page application for the prize is well worth a read for any locally involved person looking for ideas.

Cascais is also known for its civic network, “Tutores de Cascais,” which empowers regular citizens to take charge of social cohesion, environmental stewardship, and community policy. It’s so popular that there is a waiting list of citizens to join it. Cascais boasts several other democratic efforts remarkable for how long they have lasted.

Cascais was one of three cities short-listed for European Capital of Democracy; the other two were Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and Sofia, Bulgaria. Krakow, Poland, and Izmir, Turkey were also leading contenders.

Vienna is now serving as the European Capital for 2025. You can sign up for a new webinar from the European City Network, taking place March 25 from 10:30 am to Noon CET.

Vienna is also hosting ACT NOW: the Mayor’s Conference, May 5-6.

EVENTS: DEMOCRACY AS IF THE FUTURE MATTERED

If you’re in Belfast (or anywhere on the world online), you can join the audience for the world’s finest democracy festival, Imagine Belfast! March 24-30. Details here.

The Khalistan Referendum, the global vote on an independent Punjab, arrives in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 23. At the civic center, 9-5.

If you’re in Malta, March 27 brings a new Local Citizens Panel on how to better represent underrepresented groups, including at the EU level. Hat tip to Democracy International for info about the event. There is a transnational citizens panel in Malta, also on underrepresentation, April 2-4.

In Beirut, the Malcolm Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, on March 26, is hosting an online and in-person event looking at local and regional responses to climate change in the Maghreb region, with a particular emphasis on eastern Morocco. Register and learn more here. (This event is part of X Border Local Research Network, which looks at local realities in conflict-plagued border regions in Asia, Africa and the Middle East).

If you’re in Edinburgh, please check out the fascinating inaugural lecture, “Democracy As If The Future Mattered,” on April 2 at 17.00 from professor Oliver Escobar at the University of Edinburgh. Escobar is asking the big questions about the central democratic contradiction of these times. “We are undergoing an unprecedented global democratic recession, but also a period of democratic innovation. What is at the heart of this apparent contradiction? Can democracy evolve to improve the prospect of desirable futures for people and planet?” Registration and information here. Democracy Local will have a recap post-lecture. (Update: lecture is full. You can sign up for waiting list).

In Seville, you can still register for the 6^th Global Forum on Local Economic Development, April 1-4.

A civic assembly, on a stadium site’s future, is scheduled to start in Fort Collins, Colorado, the weekend of April 11-13. The second and final weekend is May 3-4.

IF YOU MISSED A FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER…

You weren’t alone. Democracy Local’s Joe Mathews couldn’t quite get the February newsletter out, while spending a frantic February reporting in Asia and advising the team creating a brand new digital, deliberative democratic tool for his home state. It’s called Engaged Calfiornia.

This piece from NOEMA Magazine’s Nathan Gardels describes the tool and its roots in global democracy (especially in Taiwan). You can see the tool itself here.

YOUR HELP NEEDED FOR 2025 GLOBAL CITIZENS' ASSEMBLY?

Iswe and Participedia are inviting you to “deliberate in the open” on April 23 at “an openonline workshop exploring inclusive and innovative methods” for the Global Citizens’ Assembly for People and Planet.

The Global Citizens’ Assembly is set to coincide with COP 30, taking place November 10-21, 2025 in Belem, Brazil.

Claire Mellier informs us via the network Democracy R&D: “We’re seeking contributions that explore new approaches to participant selection and recruitment that balance legitimacy, diversity, and representation, and that critically engage with ideas like:

Alternative approaches to random sampling
Self-descriptive recruitment
Purposive sampling
Methods combining equity, diversity, and representation

More details on the call for participation are available via this “One Pager_GCA Selection Provocation Paper_12.03.25 - Google Documenten.”

The gathering is 12-2pm Eastern Standard Time (US) on April 23. You can register on Eventbrite: Global Citizens Assembly Citizen Selection and Recruitment Workshop Tickets, Wed, Apr 23, 2025 at 12:00 PM | Eventbrite

FUN IS SERIOUS BUSINESS

The proliferation of online democratic tools provides new opportunities for participation, deliberation and decision-making by everyday people.

But many such tools fail—because they never attract an audience. So what do successful online democratic tools do?

This essay, published by the Carnegie Endowment (and written by Democracy Local’s Joe Mathews), lists three ingredients. They are entertaining. They have real stakes. And they cultivate air of mystery.

THE AMERICAN CRISIS AND LOCAL DEMOCRACY AROUND THE WORLD.

The Trump administration’s unlawful freezing of funds—including for the National Endowment of Democracy—has impacted vital democratic organizations around the world, including many that work at local scale or the local level.

Among those impacted were People Powered, the vital global hub for democracy, and Democracy Next, leader in citizens assemblies.

The Carnegie Endowment has an excellent piece on the future of U.S. democracy aid—if there is one.

Joe Mathews’ weekly Zócalo olumn has been looking at the authoritarian constitutional crisis from the Golden State’s perspective, with an openness to California independence.

• We Are All Undocumented Now.

• If at First You Don’t Secede, Try to Get Kicked Out.

• Your Local Sheriff Is the Most Dangerous Authoritarian.

• This Little Fish Speaks Volumes.

• Silicon Valley and California Go to Marriage Counseling

• A Local Coalition to Tear the Fascists Down

WORTH WATCHING

Democracy International has posted a terrific mini-documentary on the democratic resistance to save Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park. You can read Qendresa Mejzini’s excellent “LongRead” piece and see the documentary here.

Terrific, wide-ranging interview with Colorado Springs, Colorado (U.S.) Mayor Yemi Mobolade, who born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. You can see and hear it here.

In case you missed it: Democracy Local helped moderate this hybrid event in Los Angeles on the alliances we need in troubled times. A big theme—the world’s local and subnational governments need to stick together, and work more closely and aggressively than ever before. Here is a write-up with video as well.

FUTURE LOCAL LAB IS COOKING.

The new Future Local Lab, from the Local Government Intelligence Unit (originally founded by UK councils in 1983, and now located from there to Australia), is producing so much thoughtful information on local governance around the world that it is hard to keep up. But keeping up is the worth effort.

Here is a recent report on local government financial systems, drawing a large-scale, unique international comparison project, with leadership from the University of Northumbia. The work is rich in detail, but finds five “important ingredients for making the local government sector fit for the future.”

This is interesting territory, where Italy, yes, Italy, is a model.

• Clear, constitutionally defined roles for local government and finance, in relation to other levels of government.

• Real options on the local level for raising revenue and spending.

• Subsidiarity. The principle that decisions should be made at the level closest to those affected (and the lower the better).

• Territorial equalization. Which means there’s redistribution of funds, to make poorer and wealthier communities more equal.

• Central-local communication. Locals and higher levels of government must talk, constantly.

BRIDGES OF DEMOCRACY

Many big cities are thriving and leading the way in democracy. Small towns often quietly make progress in democracy because of their cohesion. But what about the cities that connect the world’s metros with its rural areas.

The “intermediary city” has huge potential, suggests this OECD program.

Also, People Powered drills down deep on the lessons of how Brazil’s national participatory planning process sought to bridge the digital divide.

MUST-READS

From our friends at Asia Democracy Chronicles

• The ‘Little’ Army That Could. (on local rebellion in Myanmar)

• Meet the Solar Sisters. (Brilliant local implementation in India)

DEMOCRACY QUOTE OF THE MONTH

In this land, the saying ‘let the snake that doesn’t bite me live a thousand years’ must not hold. Instead, I call on everyone to declare, ‘Even the snake not harming me personally, cannot find refuge in our lands,’ and to raise their voices accordingly.

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, now imprisoned by the Erdogan regime.

SUGGESTED LINKS TO LOCAL DEMOCRACY RESOURCES AND PARTNERS

Democracy International and democracy.community

Asia Democracy Chronicles

Berggruen Institute and NOEMA

International IDEA newsletter

Zócalo Public Square

Democracy Next

Federation for Innovation in Demcoracy-Europe and FIDE North America

Participedia

United Cities and Local Governments

ALDA