CIVIC PARTICIPATION

Access

The need for access is related to the degree to which we are all empowered to obtain information, to have an influence on decisions that are made, to participate in community activities, and to secure specific rights. Access is defined in the dictionary as both a way in, a means of entering, and as a right or opportunity to use or obtain something. In both senses, access has a relationship to power, and so it is a need that falls within the governance system in communities.

In the United States, access is addressed in several different ways. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has created a fairly comprehensive system that guarantees many forms of access to people with disabilities. Access to public and private buildings, access to job opportunities, access to decision-making. The Constitution of the United States considered access as one of the human needs that was worth protecting with specific constitutional rights. Equal access to jobs, education, and other community benefits is spelled out in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Access to justice is also addressed in the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Amendments.

The degree to which a community meets its citizens’ need for access in a sustainable way can be evalu-ated by the proactive steps that a community takes to provide information, to provide opportunities, and to open the decision-making and conflict resolution processes to the community for input and oversight. Public Access television allows community members to broadcast their events, or to see public meetings at home. Handicapped access to public buildings helps insure that everyone can participate. Voter registration drives and absentee ballots help insure that people have access to the democratic process.

Equity

The need for equity is expressed in some of the fundamental documents of the United States. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…" Equality is an ideal to which democracies strive, but often fall far short. The sense of justice, of fairness, is expressed strongly in the idea of equity. Two people doing the same work should be paid the same amount of money, regardless of their race or sex or age. Children should have the same opportunities to get a good education, regardless of whether they are from a poor town or a rich town. Everyone should have the right to health care, to job opportunities, and to pursuing their own form of happiness.

Even though inequity is often expressed in the starkest terms on the economic level – people do not have equal access to financial resources in this country – the distribution of resources and responsibilities in an equitable manner is still fundamentally an expression of power, which is why it is a function of the governance system rather than the economic system. World history has certainly seen many cases where wars and revolutions have been fought to gain power over economic resources, and to equalize the distribution of resources and responsibilities.

Equity also relates to issues that go beyond purely economic considerations. Equal rights, equal responsibilities, equality under the law, all of these are ways in which the relative equity of a system is expressed. Equity is also a fundamental principle of sustainability, relating directly to the idea of enhancing the capacity of community systems to provide for future needs. Any system that relies on only a few of its members to carry out important functions is inherently less stable than one where there is widespread knowledge and ability to fulfill the requirements of the system. This principle applies to a small group of people controlling anything - the money, the power, the benefits – all of these are functions that are more stable if they are widely shared by community members.

History shows that established democracies are less likely to go to war against each other. Recent re-search has discovered that overall health in a particular country can be predicted by the level of equity in the system. The poorest people in a country with a relatively high level of equity can in fact be healthier on average than the richest people in a country with sharp inequities.

The sustainability of a community can be enhanced by increasing the relative level of equity in all areas – economic, social, environmental, and in government. Sustainable strategies in this area are therefore those that work to increase overall opportunities and decrease inequity.

Self-Determination

Freedom requires access and equity, and it expresses itself in people’s level of self-determination. People need to be able to make decisions to regulate their own lives. They need to choose their professions, their housing, their hobbies, and their friends. If they are denied this fundamental human right, then they rebel, and if even this is denied them, they often do not survive. Right now, in Afghanistan, women are being treated like slaves. They have been denied the right to work, to get educated, even to walk on the streets without covering themselves in a shroud. They do not have the resources they need to fight back, and as a result, the suicide rate among women has reached epidemic proportions.

How does a community work to either enhance or erode people’s self-determination? There are a lot of things that the community can do to make people more or less free. The self-determination aspect of human needs relates to the power and choices people have over decisions that affect their lives. A community enhances its capacity for self-determination by building decision-making institutions that are designed to involve all of the people who are affected in making community decisions.

The need for self-determination can be seen in practices that are unsustainable as well. Since it is such a powerful human need, it must be taken into consideration when strategies are being designed to address problematic practices that are driven by this need. For example, the American reliance on the automobile can be traced directly to the freedom that it provides its owners. People can go where they want, when they want. Attempts to change this pattern of behavior frequently fail precisely because the alternatives offered don’t provide the same level of freedom and convenience as the car.

THE PRACTICES:

The Champlain Initiative*
The Legacy Project
Neighborhood Planning Assemblies
Vermont Livable Wage Campaign

* Interview included