Theory

 

We were asleep. But now I know we need to wake up and pay attention to all those people who are making decisions for us. 

Nancy Rodriguez, parent leader, Lawrence, MA

 

The Right Question Institute Strategy produces examples of what we call "Microdemocracy" defined as individuals using essential democratic skills to participate in decisions made in their ordinary encounters with public institutions such as their children's school, the job training program, the welfare office and Medicaid-funded health services. Those encounters are often the endpoint of engagement with the public sector. They can become, instead, the first step up the ladder of democratic action.

The Right Question Institute developed the concept of Microdemocracy based on lessons learned from the people with whom we have worked in communities all across the country over the past 15 years. Here are the key points that shaped the idea of Microdemocracy:

 

  1. People in low-income communities have, altogether, a hundred million encounters with public agencies every year.
  2. They learn not to participate in decisions in those ordinary encounters.
  3. Those agencies are actually outposts of democracy; for they exist only due to decisions made further up the democratic food chain
  4. The encounters can become, instead, opportunities for people to begin to participate in decision-making processes that affect them.
  5. When individuals acquire skills formulating questions and focusing on decisions, they are able to a. use specific criteria to expect and require accountable decision-making and; b. ask their own questions, and participate effectively for the first time in decision-making processes that affect them.
  6. As they do this, they are transformed. They become more confident and begin to take action in new ways.
  7. The skills they learn to use are essential democratic skills. Effective participation on any level of a democracy almost always requires these skills.
  8. As they use these skills, they also begin to make connections to decisions made on higher levels that affect them and discover the value of participating in traditional forms of democratic action.

  9. The action they take on the micro level deserves a name that does justice to where it happens and the nature of what happens there. We call this action Microdemocracy.

Microdemocracy: individuals using essential democratic skills to participate in decisions made in their ordinary encounters with public institutions.