A new kind of jury duty will bring 100 people from across Connecticut to New Haven at a time when American democracy is on trial. The jury won’t be sitting in court. They’re coming to Yale to serve in a “citizens’ assembly.” The gathering will take place over eight separate days (tw o online) from June through September. It will bring together randomly chosen Connecticut people from different backgrounds to delve deeply as a group into state property tax policy and its relation to “funding essential community services.” (Read more about the event and the project here.) Many believe the current reliance on property taxes to fund local government makes living here unaffordable, and unfairly shifts the tax burden from wealthier to poorer communities. A coalition — including State Comptroller Sean Scanlon, Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, and Yale political scientists — came together to organize the event to test out the idea of having everyday citizens tackle tough issues that elected officials have failed to address. Based on decision-making citizen assemblies in ancient Athens, the idea has become a worldwide movement, with 733 deliberative assemblies convened to “break political gridlock” on issues ranging from same-sex marriage and abortion (in Ireland) to climate change (in France). A Yale political scientist named Hélène Landemore, chairwoman of the upcoming New Haven-based event, traveled the world studying those experiments. She has a new book out making the case “for politics without politicians” promoting citizens’ assemblies, which she calls “jury duty for politics.” (Click here to read a New York Times column she wrote about it.) Organizers sent 200,000 snail mail letters to residents throughout the state inviting them to participate in the event. (They’ll receive $1,200 stipends.) The organizers will sift through the responses to produce a final list of 100 people with diverse backgrounds. Comptroller Scanlon has promised to bring the assembly’s results before the state legislature. New Haven’s Cynthia Farrar was enlisted to work on the effort. Farrar has spent decades exploring this very question: First in a 1985 book called The Origins of Democratic Thinking (newly out in a second edition). Then in an early 2000s citizens forum on the future of Tweed New Haven Airport. Then in a still-running project called Purple States that produces videos of Americans from different walks of life engaged in civil political discourse. Farrar characterized all those efforts, including the upcoming citizen assembly, as promoting the idea of citizenship in a democracy entailing more than just voting. It includes participating in debates and the quest for solutions to public policy challenges. Hashing out those issues with fellow citizens who may have different experiences and perspectives. Looking each other in the eyes. Listening to each other.  In a discussion Tuesday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven,” Farrar was asked if she thinks people want participatory democracy. Or if she and her citizen assembly colleagues are pushing against human nature (to veg on the couch while other people show up at meetings or make laws) or the current. “Inclusive democracy,” Farrar responded, “assumes that we’re all in this together, and that we, all of us, need to have some say that takes the general well being into account. So does it cut against the grain? Yes. Does it cut against human nature? I think not.” Democracy takes work, she argued. Especially in an ear of polarization. “If we want citizens to participate in a different kind of way, then we need structures that make that happen,” Farrar argued. “Otherwise people are going to sort themselves into groups that share particular characteristics. People with resources are going to dominate. And a range of questions are never going to get to the table.” Click on the below video to watch the full conversation on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” with inclusive democracy advocate Cynthia Farrar. Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of “Dateline New Haven.” The post City Hosts Democracy Experiment appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less