“One of the imperative needs of democratic countries is to improve
citizens’ capacities to engage intelligently in political life . . . In the
years to come . . . older institutions will need to be enhanced by new means for
civic education, political participation, information, and deliberation that
draw creatively on the array of techniques and technologies available in the
twenty-first century.”
—Robert Dahl, On Democracy (1998), pp. 187-8.
Quick Links
-> The CIR proposal is a bill before the Washington legislature.
Read it here.
-> Read the
recent Op-Ed Ned Crosby and I wrote on CIR.
Overview
Civic reformers Ned Crosby and Pat Benn, who reside in Port Townsend,
Washington, are advocating the adoption of the
Washington Citizens Initiative Review (CIR). In a nutshell, the CIR would
gather a paid random-sample of Washington residents to scrutinize each statewide
ballot measure. The results of each panel would be published in the official
Voters Guide, which is distributed to every Washington household that has one or
more registered voters. The idea of the CIR comes from Ned's work with
Citizen Juries, as well as the
ideas of other
processes that promote citizen deliberation in public policymaking.
Ned and Pat presented the CIR proposal to the Washington legislature in May, 2006. Thanks to TVW, you can listen to their presentation, along with questions and comments from others, including myself, click here (the relevant audio starts about a third of the way into it, so advance the play marker until you find 'em). You can also read a story on the CIR presentation in the Tri-City Herald.
There is now an official version of the CIR proposal as a bill introduced to the Washington State legislature. It's been through the Code Reviser's office and is full of the technical language necessary, but reading it gives one a clear sense of the details of the CIR proposal. Click here to see the bill.
Past Writings
The reason the CIR appears on my website is that it is a process very similar
to the one I have advocated in my earlier book,
By Popular Demand. (Also see
Ned Crosby's
Healthy Democracy.) Thus, I
am very keen on seeing this civic reform put into practice in Washington state,
as it seems to be one of the most effective means of improving the quality of
deliberation during initiative elections. Ned and I have written a series of short essays on the CIR idea and related
research:
- Our Nov 27, 2006 op-ed in the Seattle Times on voter knowledge and the 2006 initiative election, as well as public opinion on the CIR proposal.
- Our Nov 18, 2004 op-ed in the Seattle Times described what we can learn from British Columbia's innovative Citizen Assembly process
- Our Nov 6, 2003 op-ed in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer documented with survey data just how little information voters have when filling out their ballots in initiative elections
- Our Aug/Sept 2005 opinion piece in Washington Law & Politics reviewed the results of the British Columbia Citizens Assembly and outlined our proposal for the CIR
Evaluative Research Plan
In collaboration with academic colleagues, I am also developing a plan for how to
evaluate the effectiveness of CIR if it is implemented in Washington. In
the last chapter of By Popular
Demand, I outlined such evaluative measures, but I am developing a
detailed research plan before the CIR becomes law.
Click here to learn more about the draft research plan.
For more information on the CIR proposal, visit the official website at www.cirwa.org.
