Table Of ContentWe Decide!
In the series GLOBAL ETHICS AND POLITICS,
edited by Carol Gould
ALSO IN THIS SERIES:
Omar Dahbour, Self-Determination without Nationalism:
A ἀ eory of Postnational Sovereignty
Fiona Robinson, ἀ e Ethics of Care:
A Feminist Approach to Human Security
Micha el Menser
We Decide!
Theories and Cases in Participatory Democracy
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia • Rome • Tokyo
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
www.temple.edu/tempress
Copyright © 2018 by Temple University—Of The Commonwealth System
of Higher Education
All rights reserved
Published 2018
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Menser, Michael.
Title: We decide! : theories and cases in participatory democracy / Michael
Menser.
Description: Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2018. | Series: Global
ethics and politics | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017018198 (print) | LCCN 2017038960 (ebook) | ISBN
9781439914199 (e-book) | ISBN 9781439914175 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN
9781439914182 (paper : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Political participation—Cross-cultural studies. |
Democracy—Cross-cultural studies. | Politics, Practical—Cross-cultural
studies. | Social change—Cross-cultural studies. | Political
science—Philosophy. | BISAC: POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies /
Democracy. | PHILOSOPHY / Political.
Classification: LCC JF799 (ebook) | LCC JF799 .M47 2018 (print) | DDC
321.8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017018198
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992
Printed in the United States of America
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: We are Everywhere 1
1 Participation and Democracy in History, Theory, and Practice 11
2 Participatory Budgeting, Democratic Theory, and
the Disarticulation of the State 66
3 From Corporate Social Responsibility to Economic Democracy:
Stakeholder Theory, Civil Society, and Worker Ownership 106
4 Democracy in the Workplace: Freedom, Equality, and
the Sovereignty of Labor 145
5 From the Culture of Consumption to Democratic
Social Reproduction 201
6 We Administer! From the Public-Private to the Social-Public 226
Conclusion: Opportunities for Research and Scenarios
for Action 257
Notes 265
References 291
Index 311
Acknowledgments
P
articipatory democracy is an evolving collective enterprise and so was
writing this book! Though We Decide! is a book of philosophy, it is
informed not just by philosophers but by political and social scientists,
anthropologists, economists, and historians. And because it is also a book of
action, it owes at least as much to nonacademics, including elected officials,
government workers, nonprofit members, activists, and committed commu-
nity members, all of whom show participatory democracy is not just desir-
able and justifiable but doable.
Over the years I have been fortunate to have had many fine mentors and
(public school and university) teachers. But I learned philosophy in the form
of deliberative democracy very early, thanks to my family, who loved books
and debates. So love and thanks to them all for their support then and to this
day: Dave, Laurel, Jalen, Kent, Arlene, Donald, Horty, and Pat Menser and
Ed, Julia, and Edward Narkun. And thanks to my partner’s family for all
their more recent generosity and support, especially John Bell, Carol Ru-
dolph, and of course Clancy and Nat. I learned about participatory democ-
racy (PD) during graduate school at CUNY in the 1990s. The scene in NYC
at that time was vibrant and crucial in my own development: thanks to the
Autonomedia collective, especially Jim Fleming, Jordan Zinovich, and Jim
Feast; Reclaim the Streets and the NYC Direct Action Network, including
Brooke Lehman, Dan Vea, and David Graeber. The World and U.S. Social
Forum crews and connected movements was my next space of PD learning
viii Acknowledgments
(again by thinking and doing), thanks here to Premilla Dixit, Thomas Pon-
niah, Boa Santos, and the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network. As for aca-
demic venues, I received critical support and supportive critique from so
many at CUNY, including the Found Object and Situations collectives and
Stanley Aronowitz, Neil Smith, David Harvey, Omar Dahbour, and the Cen-
ter for Place, Culture, and Politics, the Center for Global Ethics and Politics,
Gary Wilder and the Committee on Globalization and Social Change, and
the CUNY Social and Political Philosophy Workshop. And gratitude goes to
so many other venues including the Fernand Braudel Center and the Phi-
losophy of the City (APA) Research Group. And at Brooklyn College, Ro-
berta Matthews and the Arts of Democracy and the Whiting Foundation
enabled me to undertake this project, and the Wolfe Institute provided es-
sential support for my finishing it. Throughout, at my beloved academic
home, the Brooklyn College Philosophy Department, my colleagues were
almost always supportive. On a related note, thanks to all of those who
fought for me when I was denied tenure. (We won!) Your efforts too inspired
me to continue in this work, and the broader project of PD. I also want to
thank my union, the Professional Staff Congress, not just for the health care
coverage and sabbatical (without which I could not have completed this
book), but also for its dedication to the City University of New York and
public education. I am truly honored to have been a student and to be fac-
ulty at CUNY, one of the most inclusive, vibrant, and impactful public insti-
tutions in the country if not the world.
For many significant PD conversations and collaborations, and/or com-
ments on my work thanks to Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Kenneth Edusei, Shane
Epting, Ken Estey, Jessica Gordon Nembhard, Andrej Grubacic, David Har-
vey, Ron Hayduk, Olivia Katz, Shannon Kincaid, Alan Aja, Alex Kolokotro-
nis, Veronica Manlow, Jamie McCallum, Chris Michael, Manny Ness, Laxmi
Ramasubramanian, the crews at the Democracy Collaborative and the Sci-
ence and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay, Marina Sitrin, Bill Solecki, Ce-
lina Su, Alex Sullivan, Robert Viscusi, Chey Weber, Jocelyn Wills, and Eddie
Yuen.
And I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers; they were ex-
actly what every writer hopes for: thorough, insightful, critical yet encourag-
ing. And to editor Aaron Javsicas, for his guidance and patience. And deep
appreciation to Carol Gould. This book would not have been possible with-
out her early and consistent support and encouragement. And her innovative
and systematic body of work created a space within philosophy for works
such as this one and many others.
And thanks to all those who made PB possible in the United States! Son-
dra Youdelman and the amazing crew at Community Voices Heard, and all
the participants, as well as Chicago Alderman Joe Moore and NYC council
member Jumaane Williams. And my deepest gratitude to Josh Lerner and
Acknowledgments ix
everyone who has worked at the Participatory Budgeting Project. You inspire
and teach me so much more than you could ever know: you are participatory
democracy in action! And thoughtful, creative, and relentless.
And to my family, Desmond and Vandana, not the least for their efforts
at “family meeting time”—our attempt at democracy in action at home!—
but more so for their persistent, inquisitive amazingness. And to Nicole,
through it all, my true partner.
Description:Participatory democracy calls for the creation and proliferation of practices and institutions that enable individuals and groups to better determine the conditions in which they act and relate to others. Michael Menser’s timely book We Decide! is arguably the most comprehensive treatment of parti
