The journal of the New Rules Project

Fall 2000

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Table of Contents

Features

When the Farmer Makes The Rules
Forty years ago, two roads diverged in the chicken industry. Sick of being squeezed by processors, Canadian poultry farmers asked their local governments to construct a system that provided them with bargaining power. In the U.S., efforts to create similar systems failed. And that has made all the difference. By Brian Levy

The Culture Thief
Cultural protection laws allow many countries to encourage local creations--such as films--that might otherwise disappear in the face of Hollywood's hunger for global markets. Even with the laws, most countries' own films only account for a small percentage of the entertainment dollar. Still, the U.S. distributors call the laws a barrier to trade. By Simona Fuma Shapiro

Preempt This! Michigan Cities Fight Back
What does it take to get a group of polite Midwesterners riled up enough to propose an amendment to their state constitution? Michigan legislators can tell you it's not too difficult: just pass a series of laws that weaken local authority. By Daniel Kraker

Setting a Slow Table
If you've always wanted to be an activist but stayed away because of the bad food and long hours, there's good news. A group called Slow Food has taken up the cause of local cuisine and is defending it against everything from hyper-hygienic policies to the homogenizing influence of mass distribution. Their organizing strategy: sit down and enjoy a delicious, leisurely meal. By Stacy Mitchell

Departments

editor's note
We need a more engaged citizenry--one that does more than vote every four years. A one-percent levy might be the solution.

place rules
California governor vetoes internet tax. Connecticut beach excludes nonresidents. ATM surcharges scrapped in England. New York imposes fees on sale of pollution credits.

[editor's note]

One Percent for Citizenship

The elections are over. About 50 percent of those reading these words have fulfilled one of citizenship's duties: electing people who make decisions on our behalf. Now what? Must we simply sit on the sidelines for the next two or four years, catching fleeting and superficial glimpses into the decision making process? To be sure, that's the way it's always been. But technological advances encourage us to expect--indeed, to demand--a different way of doing things in the future.

An engaged citizenry is essential to a vibrant democracy. At the heart of engagement is information. Today many of us have high-speed access to web-based information, either directly from our homes or businesses or via the local branch library. The infrastructure is in place to allow us to monitor every step of the decisionmaking process and, more importantly, to understand the justification for and consequences of proposed policies.

Yet it is virtually impossible to gain a comprehensive understanding of a single issue without spending days, if not weeks, visiting dozens--if not hundreds--of different sources. We need a single source structured in a way that makes the different sides of an issue accessible. For a model we could turn to the traditional in-depth debate, complete with rebuttal and surrebuttal and links to sites with supporting data where interested citizens can do their own homework. The web offers advocates a remarkable array of tools to explain their position: graphs, videos, even movies.

More than one public official with whom I've raised this idea has responded, "Only policy wonks want in-depth information. The vast majority of Americans have no time to examine the issues. They don't care." I agree that we are very busy people who have largely lost the aptitude and patience needed for citizenship. But I vehemently disagree that the resulting cynicism means we just don't care. We do, or rather, I firmly believe, we would, if issues and policies were made more accessible.

Our genius invented the web and almost weekly develops new ways to use its tools to persuade. This genius is used to sell products and it achieves this purpose remarkably well. Even public agencies use web sites to promote their own programs and agendas. They treat us as customers. Legislative bodies, at best, allow us simply to track legislation, and even that often requires a herculean effort. They rarely provide information that allows us to understand the legislation's implications.

This must stop. All public agencies should be required, as one of their most important functions, to nurture citizenship. Nurturing citizenship, in the full sense of the word, will not come cheap. Yet it need not break the bank. A precedent exists for setting aside a portion of our budgets to strengthen the commonweal. In the early 1970's, several cities adopted a "one-percent-for-the-arts" policy. One percent of public capital spending had to be spent for art that enriched public spaces. Today more than 100 communities have adopted such provisions. Some--like Fort Lauderdale, Dallas, San Francisco and San Jose--have upped the ante to 2 percent.

Why not adopt a one-percent-for-citizenship levy, from operating as well as capital budgets? In St. Paul, Minnesota, population 260,000, such a levy would generate about $1 million a year. Nationally, a one-percent-for-citizenship levy on all municipal bond issues would generate over $1 billion. These sums may be sufficient to construct an information system to enable citizens to become familiar with virtually any local, state, national or even international issue. That doesn't mean we would suddenly arrive at a consensus on every issue. It does mean that we would elevate political discourse to another level.

What institution might be responsible for developing and managing that information system? Why not the single most respected and ubiquitous of all public institutions: the public library? The public library itself is an American invention designed to promote an educated citizenry. The reference librarian's task is to identify sources that can answer a bewildering array of questions. Indeed, each year, by phone alone, public librarians answer over 250 million queries.

The election is over, but that need not mean citizenship must hibernate for another two or four years. The information infrastructure is in place to allow us to become citizens in the fullest sense of the term. We only lack the political will to do so.

--David Morris

David Morris
Vice President, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
© 2000 Institute for Local Self-Reliance

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