Today’s problems are too deep and interconnected to be solved from the top-down. Solutions require the ingenuity, experience and values of all of us. That’s the insight shared by more and more regular citizens across the planet. They’re letting go of the failing notion that democracy is merely a set system of government, something done to us or for us—what we call Thin Democracy. They are saying by their action that democracy is what we do!

The transition is underway. Democracy is becoming a way of life in our communities, schools, workplaces and more. It is an enlivening culture in which the values of inclusion, fairness, and mutual accountability show up in a wide range of human relationships. So—and here’s the vital part—its values apply just as much in economic life or in cultural life as in political life. And that means we don’t have to leave the best of us at home — our values, our creativity, our voice — when, for instance, we enter the workplace.

We call it Living Democracy because it is about the way we live together: In essence it means infusing the power of citizens’ voices and values throughout our public lives and removing the power of money from governance. Rest assured, Living Democracy isn’t a new fixed “ism,” blueprint, or utopian end-state. It continually evolves, incorporating new experience.

Paradigm Shift

We see the need for this paradigm shift in a variety of places. The very existence of hunger, for example, belies democracy. Feeding ourselves and our offspring is the first thing all living creatures do. No one chooses to go hungry or let their children starve. So where we see hunger, we know people are being denied choice. They are being denied voice in their society.

By contrast, food democracy means the right of all to an essential of life—safe, nutritious food. It suggests fair access to land to grow food and fair return for those who labor to produce it. Food democracy concerns itself with the future as well: It implies economic rules that encourage communities to safeguard the soil, water, and wildlife on which all our lives and futures depend.

And what about the media? We are moving, fast, in two directions at once: toward an ever-more concentrated media dominated by corporate interests and government control, and at the same time toward a democratic media that can express a wide variety of opinions and cultures, accessible to both those with resources and those without. Media can be used to build community, solidarity, citizen strength, and to foster a truly living democracy. Through efforts to democratize media institutions, we can move voices we otherwise would never hear into the public realm, and create new space for media analysis and critique. Our media is being transformed, from the bottom up.