The Tao of Democracy

Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World that Works for All

The Tao of Democracy presents an increasingly relevant and compelling vision of wiser public policy and vibrant democratic culture. Written by lifelong activist Tom Atlee, The Tao of Democracy is rooted in a simple, yet revolutionary proposition that opens doors to positive democratic change: Given a supportive structure and resources, diverse ordinary people can work together to achieve common ground. Tom Atlee takes readers through numerous examples of how this proposition has been tested and proven hundreds of times around the world in diverse and innovative forms of public conversation.

• In Oregon, a nonprofit involved thousands of ordinary citizens in in-depth conversations about how to best use limited health care funds; the result was a mandate by the state legislature to use such community meetings to guide state health care decisions.
• In Toronto, Canada, a group of a dozen people widely divergent political views created, over the course of one weekend, a consensus vision for improving the nation as a whole—a feat that parliamentary committees, focus groups, and millions of dollars in funds had been unable to achieve.
• In Andhra Pradesh, India, twenty farmers participated in a prajateerpu or citizens’ jury, listening to testimony and cross-examining experts (including international government officials) in order to present the World Bank with practical proposals for managing the state’s agriculture systems.

Ideal for community organizers, nonprofit workers, policymakers, and elected officials, The Tao of Democracy illuminates new forms of collective citizenship that can help us achieve creative consensus without compromise, addressing the diversity and complexity of our society while preserving and utilizing our precious individuality.

“Tom Atlee paints a vision not of some distant, ideal democracy but of here-and-now practices showing us what’s possible in our immediate future. An important gift for our small, challenged planet!”—Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Planet and EcoMind

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Section I: An Overview of Co-Intelligence

1. What Is Co-Intelligence?
2. Tales and Commentaries
3. Wholeness, Interconnectedness, and Co-Creativity
4. Resonant Intelligence

Section II: Making a Whole Difference Together

5. Reaching Beyond Adversarial Activism
6. Collective Intelligence
7. Ways to Have Real Dialogue
8. Other Approaches to Co-Intelligence
9. The List Goes On…

Section III: Creating a Wise Democracy

10. Democracy and Wholeness
11. Cooperative and Holistic Politics
12. The Canadian Experiment
13. Citizens Deliberate about Public Issues
14. Citizen Deliberative Councils

Section IV: Citizenship toward a Wiser Civilization

15. Citizenship Meets Complexxity
16. More Approaches to Deliberative Democracy
17. The Emerging Culture of Dialogue
18. Consensus: Manipluation or Magic?
19. Co-Intelligent Citizenship and Activism
20. The Tao of Democracy

Epilogue
What You Can Do
Bibliography
Index