National Ballot Initiative Newsletter

National Initiative for Democracy Newsletter

This month brings plenty of exciting news.

I am excited to report that http://www.healthydemocracyoregon.org has won a generous grant from the National Science Foundation to document how Oregon voters see, trust, and use the information provided by the Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR). The similarity between CIR and NI4D's deliberative committee is sure help people understand deliberative democracy.

I am excited to introduce Daniela Bozhinova, a Fulbright scholar from Bulgaria who is working with The Democracy Foundation to learn about direct democracy and introduce the idea in Bulgaria. If you are affiliated with a college or university then there is an occasional lecturer fund to assist in inviting Fulbright scholars to visit and speak. Daniela has expressed interest in exchanging ideas with American college students. Please avail this rare opportunity.

I am excited to report that Myron Stagman has stepped forward to develop a new pamphlet to ignite grassroots support for national initiative. His proposal is currently being refined on the NI4D google discussion group. One urgent need is for an artist (or artists) to volunteer to provide attractive illustrations to complement his words and bring them to life. If you are interested in helping, just reply to this email and we will be in touch.

I am excited to report that Evan Ravitz was interviewed by Scott Paris at blogtalkradio. Blogtalkradio seems like a marvelous medium for exchanging experiences that lead to our interest in national initiative. I encourage everybody to contact Scott Paris (or start your own channel) and tell your own personal story of how you found out about NI4D and why you support deliberative direct democracy.

I would also like to call your appreciation to a great rebuttal written by Stephen Verbeek to an article recently published in a student newspaper.

Four authors have submitted articles for the journalism contest. We just need one more submission and voting will commence.

Some fascinating articles have been published since last month. Be sure to subscribe to our news aggregator at http://planet.ni4d.us/

Joshua Pritikin
Democracy Foundation Volunteer

National Ballot Initiative Newsletter

The National Initiative for Democracy Newsletter

Ross Levin discovered that If you become a fan of Chase Community Giving, you can vote for 20 charities to receive $25,000.  The Democracy Foundation is on that list - so please register and vote for us.  $25,000 would do wonders for us; we would be able to try out paper ballots and get a lot of funding for the planned documentary. We need to get into the top 100 to win funding, so every vote counts.

Here is the link to Chase Community Giving on Facebook:
http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/

Speaking of money, last month we had a moneybomb to promote and raise funds for our new film project. So far, we have raised $1533 from 54 people. This is short of our target of $10,000, but it is a large step in the right direction. Donors, thank you very much!

On Nov 10th, the moneybomb announcement went out to 18815 people in the monthly newsletter. However, we only had 2856 visitors to http://film.ni4d.us total during all of November. That means that as many as 16000 of you receiving this newsletter have not even peeked at http://film.ni4d.us. Please take a look!

Last but not least, a section has been added to our website providing an analysis of public consultation and placing NI4D within that context.



Democracy Foundation - National Ballot Initiative Newsletter (Part 2)

As I announced earlier this month, our video team is ready to develop a feature length documentary to place NI4D in its historical context and explain the unique features of the NI4D proposal.

Learn more about the project at http://film.ni4d.us.

Our 24 hour fundraising sprint (a.k.a. moneybomb) starts NOW.

The last newsletter went out to 18945 people. If you want to directly support our effort, please visit the film website and donate now.

You are also invited to help us promote the film. Coordinate your efforts with other volunteers on IRC, Facebook, and Twitter:

http://ni4d.us/en/irc
http://www.facebook.com/pages/NI4D-Film/162076279680
http://twitter.com/ni4dfilm

Also, watch Senator Gravel's appeal for support.

Please join us in helping to promote this worthy cause.

Democracy Foundation - National Ballot Initiative Newsletter

The National Initiative for Democracy Newsletter

Earlier this year, volunteers assembled for the purpose of developing a feature length documentary to place NI4D in its historical context and explain the unique features of the NI4D proposal.

Learn more about the project at http://film.ni4d.us.

Our video team is ready to produce the film, but we need to raise a modest amount of funds.

We will have a 24 hour fundraising sprint (a.k.a. moneybomb) on Nov 10th.

Throughout the day on Nov 10, a team of volunteers will announce the film in every corner of the Internet and solicit for donations.

The last newsletter went out to 19130 people. We welcome your assistance and collaboration.

Please note the date on your calendar.

During Nov 10th, many updates will be posted to:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/NI4D-Film/162076279680
http://twitter.com/ni4dfilm

Please join us in helping to promote this worthy cause.

Democracy Foundation - National Ballot Initiative Newsletter

More than 30 people joined the newsletter since last month. Welcome!

At The Democracy Foundation, we receive many emails at our contact address. Some are easy to answer; some are more challenging. Of the more challenging variety, a number of recent emails asserted that America is a republic and not a democracy, equated democracy with mob rule, and asked us to withdraw the NI4D proposal. There is even a dramatic YouTube video which tries to derive this conclusion from first principles. Let us take a closer look at this argument.

First of all, there is an ounce of truth; direct democracy without deliberation is mob rule. That is part of why initiatives, a form of direct democracy, have occasionally wrecked havoc in California and why Oregon has recently added a citizen jury to provide a balance evaluation of initiatives in the voter pamphlet. Current initiative procedures are flawed, giving an impression that direct democracy cannot be made to work. However, we think the solution is not to get rid of direct democracy, but to reform it. The NI4D would make initiatives much more deliberative than even Oregon, permitting the deliberative committee to modify proposed laws to incorporate refinement and constructive criticism (see Democracy Act, 3-I).

Second, whether America is a republic or democracy is a matter of pedantry. Granted, many people don't know what "republic" means, but drilling on vocabulary is not going to change the fact that 24 states offer initiative. Even if "republic" means "not a democracy," are we suppose to annul the laws made by initiative during the last 100 years? Instead of worrying about definitions of words, we need a specific proposal designed to fix our governance problems. How about NI4D?

Finally, http://www.williampmeyers.org/republic.html offers a longer and well researched rebuttal to this nonsense.

During August, we raised $120. That is double what we raised during July, but it is still not enough to fully cover our monthly web hosting expenses. Please donate at http://demofound.org/donate.htm