This chart was developed by Frances Moore Lappé and Paul Martin Du Bois and was published along with their article Living Democracy.
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Formal Democracy |
Moral Community |
Living Democracy |
| Definition | set of formal political institutions (e.g., multiple parties) and procedures (e.g., secret ballot) | state of justice and mutual caring for the common good | a way of life in which people share in public problem-solving in all their public roles - as citizens, workers, students, employers, parents, consumers, etc. |
| Nature of Democracy | a static set of institutional arrangements we already have in the Western democracies, that many other people want |
a static ideal we work towards but never achieve | a dynamic process which we are forever evolving and improving as we participate in it; democracy is something we do |
| Purpose | to protect individual pursuit of happiness, protect against interference | to achieve justice and therefore peace and harmony | to facilitate mutual pursuit of interests. Democracy is also of inherent value because it develops distinct human capacities and meets human needs (like "making a difference" and participating in a community) |
| Democracy applies to: | those few things that market exchange can't handle | social rules that determine distribution of resources | decision-making concerning the "commons" - those natural, economic, educational and cultural resources on which we all depend |
| Role of citizens | to select leaders and check their power by vote, protest & recall | to be responsible for the common good | to wield power as co-creators of history |
| Power perspective | power is a one-way force exerted by powerholders over the less powerful; zero-sum: the more for you, the less for me; measured by control and immediate victory | power is corrupting, destructive
and nasty; it's denied as a goal; the power of oppressors should be protested |
power means "to be able"; everyone has it in their relationships; the more we use it together, the more there is; not zero-sum: it grows when used to build long-term, mutually-beneficial relationships |
| Self- interested behavior |
protects individual selfish interests and own narrow agenda | denies self-interest and works on behalf of the oppressed | self-interest includes all that we care about; we evolve & move on our broad self-interest by discovering & developing its relationships to the interests of others |
| Handling of differences | differences tolerated but the majority rules | cut through differences to common humanity | diversity acknowledged as real and valu-able; dialogue among diverse perspectives creates new common ground |
| Skills/arts/ qualities needed | good sense in choosing leaders to make decisions for us | public virtue; compassion; capacity to overcome self-interest |
democratic arts must be actively learned: listening, dialogue, critical and strategic thinking, reflection, negotiation, creative controversy, etc. |
| Role of expertise | dominant, since most decisions depend on centralized, specialized technical knowledge | experts must be converted to serve the common good | expertise "on tap, not on top"; used by citizens to develop useful guides for pub-lic action; direct experience is respected |
| Role of the state |
a regulator to protect property, the market and individual rights | a means to achieve justice and protect the powerless | a tool used by citizens to express self-interests, protect the commons and progress toward mutual goals |
| Role of the market | governs the interaction of self-seeking social atoms (individuals) | a threat to community | a tool used by citizens to meet their
needs, build their communities and solve shared problems |
| Role of public values (e.g., freedom or fairness) | individually held values usually unarticulated, undiscussed; can be deduced from individual choices; value-symbols used to market products, candidates & policies | values taught by more enlightened
people to those still trapped in individualism |
values consciously held, used and
discussed in public life; they evolve and become clarified through
experience and dialogue with others |
| Rights | to protect the individual against the state and other citizens | to protect minorities and all those less powerful | to assure those human and other resources needed for vibrant, effective public life and civic culture |