The Tao of Democracy

With compelling real-life stories, innovative ideas and hands-on guidance, this book shows how to engage the combined wisdom of citizens to solve complex social problems.It describes how powerful new forms of dialogue and deliberation enable diverse ordinary citizens to work together developing sophisticated public policy recommendations -- even on technical issues. Demonstrating that groups, communities and whole societies can be more intelligent and wise collectively than most brilliant individuals, Tom Atlee shows how "collective intelligence" could revolutionize politics and governance, bringing wise common sense to every issue -- from city budgets to terrorism to global warming.Readers will find descriptions and links to over a hundred proven approaches to this new form of democracy -- organizations, participatory practices, innovations, books and more. The most powerful innovations -- citizen deliberative councils -- have been used hundreds of times around the world -- from Denmark to India, from Brazil to the U.S.The 2500-year-old Tao Te Ching says that leaders should govern so the people say "We did it ourselves." The Tao of Democracy shows how.

Tom Atlee is founder and president of the Co-Intelligence Institute. He has written and spoken for 20 years on politics, democracy and cultural transformation. Thousands of people every month read his writings at co-intelligence.org and in his email newsletters. His articles have appeared in National Civic Review, Communities, Science of Mind, Noetic Sciences Review and numerous other journals.