Participatory democracy

I have read on Stefano Quintarelli’s blog about the Wikidemocracy initiative:


WD is the first experiment in the world to write the parties’ programs bottom-up.


It is still under development and focused on Italy, but we plan to internationalize it as soon as possible.

 

It is not the first initiative in this direction, and I really hope it won’t be the last. Just when the net is ridiculed as a past-time for clinical cases by one of the most influential cathodic anchormen, it is necessary to try and make the best of the visibility.

I enthusiastically registered my account, despite the first impact (when I had to choose a party to "belong" to, at least for what it concerns the initiative) had almost prevented me from signing up. But my second thought was that I should not be too cautious or doubtful: a contribution in the less-than-perfectly-matched area would be valuable anyway, far more valuable than no contribution at all.

A first measure of success for the initiative, even before being able to observe any influence on the "real" parties, will be active participation in all the party areas. I think that a very important side effect of the initiative would be for participants, to observe and learn from the discussion in other areas: because, as citizens, our interests are rather converging than conflicting.