Who Decides?

SCOPE has a specific orientation to how lasting and transformative change happens in a community.  That means that, while some changes are always happening, I am talking about change that shakes things up in a way that makes it so that going back to the previous state is just not going happen.  That kind of change happens when there is a shift in the underlying structures and organization.  This is akin to transformation in science where the composition and properties are altered. 

That kind of change occurs when there is a fundamental shift in who participates in the decisions that influence the present and especially the future.    

So who decides who participates?  Seems like a simple question but it has been a real struggle through history.  

·        It wasn't until 1964 that Poll Taxes were banned through the nation. 

·         Ex-felons are often excluded from important civil decisions, though this issue is handled differently from state to state and country to country. 

·        The Economist magazine recently published its third edition of the Index of Democracy.  Their headline is that after 30 years of acceleration of global democratic growth, democracy has been in decline since 2008. 

A recent Nicholas Kristof article in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune references the data about economic participation.  He cites the CIA ranking of countries by income inequality that shows that the United States is a more unequal society than either Tunisia or Egypt.  Furthermore, a new book, The Darwin Economy (by Cornell University economist, Robert Frank), shows that among the 65 industrial nations, the more unequal ones experience slower growth. 

Transformative change can happen when the power to decide, to be a part of the economy, to be engaged is realized across sectors and at all scales.  This is certainly a hope and possibility for the nation; maybe it can scale up from Sarasota County.