New Democrat Update - March 2010
COMMUNITIES VS. BUREAUCRACIES
The domination of the traditional left and hard right in our public dialogue has led to endless ideological gridlock and very little problem-solving. A conservative cult of rampant individualism and me-first has not been the solution. At the same time, the public sector cannot cure all our private and public ills.
Small-government conservatives might find the stalemate pleasing, but needed public solutions are simply not getting done. Implementation of overdue reforms has been stymied.
Part of breaking the deadlock requires progressives to inject some ageless principles and basic common sense back into the public debate. Some guidance can come from "communitarianism,” a governing philosophy that, defined in everyday language, means that “we are all in this thing together.”
Some excerpts from communitarianism’s platform include "Neither human existence nor human liberty can be sustained for long outside interdependent communities. . . Nor can any community long survive unless its members dedicate some of their attention, energy, and resources to shared projects. . . Members of the community have a responsibility ... to provide for themselves and their families. Beyond self-support, individuals have a responsibility for the material and moral well-being of others. No one of us is an island."
This brand of thinking rejects every man or woman for himself or herself, as well as traditional bureaucratic government programs. Rather than trying to be a replacement for collective action, it transforms the public sector into a supporting partner to communities so that they can solve their own problems.
If implemented across-the-board, the very role and effectiveness of government will dramatically change for the better. In addition, political support for public solutions will dramatically increase, boosting the important cause of progressive politics.
For example, governments cannot force people to take responsibility for their housing or neighborhoods. But they can structure things so that people can take control, if they want it.
Strong neighborhoods - one where residents interact frequently and work together on community issues - are very effective bulwarks against crime. Oakland California's Safe Streets Now! initiative teaches volunteers how to recognize drug houses in their neighborhoods, organize their blocks, and work closely with the police.
Neighborhood residents bring documented complaints to property owners and, if no action is taken, each community member may sue the owner for up to $5,000. Thousands of citizens have been trained and hundreds of drug houses have been closed. Crime rates have fallen by 60 percent.
In St. Paul, the mayor pushed the ownership of many services into the community, from home energy audits and weatherization to replacement of trees killed by Dutch elm disease. He was so intent on getting citizens to feel like they owned city hall that he even published an Owner's Manual listing all city services and departments.
The initiative’s principal instrument was a system of 17 elected district councils. The city subsidized an office and organizer for each council which acted as sounding boards for officials, set priorities for half a billion dollars worth of public works investments, initiated special projects funded by the city, and delivered services.
Many district councils actively attacked problems in their communities, sponsoring initiatives like neighborhood watches and a service that pays kids to do chores for the elderly. One council managed the city park in its neighborhood.
Still another organized a Block Nurse Program through which residents and nurses provided care, companionship and help with household chores to elderly members of the community, so they could stay out of nursing homes. Church groups trained the volunteers, other organizations helped out with things like lawn care, Boy Scouts painted houses, and local stores provided goods.
In addition to naturally being more committed than impersonal service delivery systems, communities understand their problems much better than distant bureaucracies filled with professionals. On a wide variety of fronts, building stronger communities trumps building bigger government.
UNCLOGGING GOVERNMENT'S ARTERIES
In the mid-1990s, Jonathan Rauch wrote an important book titled “Demosclerosis: The Silent Killer of American Government.” Every progressive should pick up a copy and read it.
Rauch persuasively argues that we, all of us, are slowly killing our own government. Everyone has all too well learned the value of organizing into groups to pursue common interests.
It must be working because seven out of ten Americans belong to at least one association. In this day and age, there really is nothing special about the "special interests" because they include all of us - farmers, veterans, retirees, oil workers, environmentalists, etc. As Rauch puts it, "We have met the special interests, and they are us."
The result of all this involvement in our participatory democracy is not a more pluralistic, fair community but a "hyperpluralistic" society in which we fight tooth and nail to get every tax break, regulation, subsidy and program that government has to offer. And once a benefit is voted into place, it is there forever.
"When you try to trim programs, interest groups complain bitterly and fight hard," writes Rauch, "But woe unto him, above all, who makes bold to grab a subsidy or special deal by the roots and pull it out entirely. Try doing that, and the affected group flies at you with the fury of the desperate or the damned."
Interest groups constantly inundate congressional and legislative offices to ensure that their special tax break, subsidy or anti-competitive deal is protected in every year's budget. That constant assault is taking its toll on government's ability to solve the nation's problems.
We get stuck forever with every government program ever tried. We continue to pay for initiatives that have long outlived their usefulness and consequently, we are in a fiscal bind to try anything new. Government has lost that key ingredient needed by every effective organization - the capability to adapt.
The problem is compounded, even perpetuated, by an entire industry of lobbyists and other group representatives that has grown up by helping interest groups hang on to what they see as their fair share of an increasingly smaller pie. No group dares to forgo representation because, as Rauch explains, "If your competitor opens a political action committee to donate to a key politician, you could lose your shirt if you don't do the same."
Unfortunately, demosclerosis is not the kind of problem you solve; it is one that leaders must continually manage and fight. It is a natural byproduct of the democratic system we cannot discard, without doing away with what we value most about government.
All of us must apply constant pressure against the forces that fuel this creeping and paralyzing disease. Rauch comes up with some interesting ideas on how to unclog the public arteries.
Curing the disease requires better leadership, more citizen involvement and recognizing that the best remedies lie within each of us.