National Civic Review articles from March 2005

National Civic Review archives from March 2005

Note from the Editor.
March 22, 2005... Otto von Bismarck once compared the legislative process to sausage making--"two things," he suggested, "you don't want to see being made." The same might be said of America's patchwork voting system, which was on display again during the 2004...

Electoral reform and deliberative democracy in British Columbia.
March 22, 2005... A debate over the future of Canada's electoral system has moved from the university or think-tank seminar room to the floor of the provincial legislature. Historically, Canadian federalism has encouraged policy and institutional innovation at...

Sustainable community change: a new paradigm for leadership in community revitalization efforts.
March 22, 2005... Comprehensive community revitalization projects typically try to motivate residents in poor, inner-city neighborhoods by addressing issues perceived as unfair or caused by inequitable allocation of resources. This strategy may get people...

The recent evolution of democracy.
March 22, 2005... It seems as if every time I attend a meeting where people are talking about the key issues in their community, the same scenario plays itself out. Typically, the group is planning an effort to mobilize a large number of ordinary citizens for...

Building policy from the ground up: regionalism, equitable development, and developing new leaders.
March 22, 2005... In a democratic society, justice is possible only if all people participate in the social, economic, and political life of the society. To achieve such inclusiveness, we need to pursue new policies designed to foster economic and social equity...

Nonpartisanship and political websites.
March 22, 2005... The full report on nonpartisan political Websites, Pioneers in Online Politics: Nonpartisan Political Web Sites in the 2000 Campaign, is available at www.ipdi.org. This project was made possible by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York....

Neighborhood councils and city agencies: a model of collaborative coproduction.
March 22, 2005... In this article, we review an action research program called the Collaborative Learning Project, which was undertaken together with a new system of official neighborhood councils in the City of Los Angeles. These councils were established in a...

Legal frameworks for the new governance: processes for citizen participation in the work of government.
March 22, 2005... Among leaders in the field of public affairs education, the watchword for the next millennium may well be "governance." Governance and government are not synonymous. Government refers to execution and implementation of activities backed by...

Networks in a new "gateway".(COMMUNITY BUILDING)
March 22, 2005... Enter the building at 201 West Main Street in Durham to learn how this area of North Carolina has handled the explosive growth of its immigrant population. To the left of the expansive foyer is the three-year-old Latino Community Credit...

Success for instant runoff voting in San Francisco.(POLITICAL REFORM)
March 22, 2005... In November 2004, San Francisco held its first election with instant runoff voting (IRV), an important innovation in democracy that could spread to cities and states around the country. IRV was used to elect seven seats on the city's Board of...

HAVA or havoc?(POLITICAL REFORM)
March 22, 2005... "I think a lot of us had a sense that something... went wrong on Nov. 2 and it had to do with the election process and procedures in place that were unacceptable." (1) The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) was intended to transform America's...

Transforming civic engagement through technology.(TRENDS IN CIVIC ENGAGEMENT)
March 22, 2005... In 2003, I taught a course at Pace University, Web Design for Nonprofit Organizations (funded by a $2,000 grant from the Center for Community Outreach at Pace), that involved students in an effort to help agency clients develop social networks...