Editor’s note: This is the second column in a two-part series.
In the presence of a constitution that restricts local decision-making and centralizes power in Montgomery, Alabama’s citizens need to exercise a freer kind of democracy.
We need community-based democracy and problem solving, instead of a system that requires a dysfunctional central legislature to pass laws and ordinances for each individual county. When our politicians in Montgomery are inactive, citizens should simply bypass them, using all the resources technology gives us.
In present-day Alabama, the people don’t govern themselves, but through technology, we have the ability to change that. We shouldn’t wait any longer to do so.
Of all the things the Internet creates, the most important is an open forum. Necessity breeds innovation, and with a restrictive constitution that gives residents little to no real voice, we have a necessity. Residents of Alabama need to develop the technology that makes deliberative democracy — community-based, small scale problem solving — attainable for Alabama’s individual localities.
That won’t take any huge strides in technology. It will, though, take a reevaluation of our usage of Internet forums.
Specifically, think of al.com. Imagine if all the energy expended on commenting on football news developments were redirected to social and fiscal issues in individual towns, and imagine if everyone acted civilly when they commented. It’s not inconceivable to say that local issues could be resolved online in Internet forums, as people comment on a feed for the issue at their convenience.
For example, a community could decide that they wish to try to bring new jobs to their community. They decide that they certainly won’t get a viable initiative to through Montgomery’s defunct system, and while they can’t change tax policy, they can create their own initiatives. The community could deliberate and collectively decide to put, say, a community microfinance fund into place that could increase residents’ credit scores, bringing in loans and, eventually, more jobs. Online forums could facilitate this project, improve it and make it happen without any politician’s help.
The goal, of course, would not be to dismantle Alabama’s legislative system forever. Ideally, it would force our government to catch up with technology — something not only Alabama but also the U.S. as a whole needs to catch up on.
Matt Leighninger, who spoke at last week’s Connect the Dots conference in Point Clear, which was put on by the David Mathews Center for Civic Life, pointed out that the United States lags far behind other countries in its democratic practices.
In Brazil, for example, citizens might not have immediate access to the Internet. However, Brazil’s government has a system in which voters can vote on issues as important as tax policy directly on their cell phones. Through initiatives like these, Brazil — a nation on the rise, but nonetheless still developing — has shown how pure democracy can be achieved with technology today.
Now, imagine opportunities like that at work in Alabama. Not only could voting residents organize themselves on the Internet, they could practice pure democracy, by and large bypassing Montgomery’s corrupt system and creating a state completely responsive to its residents. Eventually, the legislative system would be forced to catch up, and we could be within one or two new referendums of a new Constitution and a new culture of democracy in Alabama.
Where do these initiatives start, though? Who develops the technology, calls for it to be put in place, and uses it to prove that it produces results?
The people do. Alabama’s politicians can’t solve our problems. If we take these steps as citizens, we can. Maybe if we do take these steps, Montgomery will wake up, feel the tide turning and endorse a constitutional convention. Until then, though, let’s practice our own democracy, and buck the Alabama republic.
William J. Tucker is a freshman majoring in international relations. His column runs on Fridays.
