Public Powers for the Commonweal: A Challenge to Faith-Based Organizing
If we are going to give power to the philosophers, the Prince, the elected, or to the party central committee, we have to explain why. In the case of restoring power to the people, no such argument is required. An explanation may be required of why such a situation will be safe, efficient, lasting, or a source of wise decisions, but not why it is legitimate. Radical democracy is legitimacy itself. —C. Douglas Lummis
A doorknocker's guide to canvassing
* © The Youth Project, originally published in Community Jobs, 4(1):18-19 (February 1981) under my former English name, Mike Silver, and reprinted with permission. You say you answered an ad for an “activist,” went to the interview and got hired as a canvasser for a local organization? Your job, you were told, would be to go door-to-door soliciting donations and support for the organization. Now you’re having second thoughts—feeling a bit anxious, wondering what’s going to happen. Maybe you’re already thinking about some of the questions for firstday canvassers: Do I really want this kind of job, even if I believe in the issue? How long will it take to learn the ropes? Will I be able to make the “quota”? And so on. Well, if it is your first day, it may be some relief to know that most new canvassers get hooked by the job’s excitement and the camaraderie, and by the chance to learn new skills. And many are successful with virtually no prior training or experience. Your questions will begin to be answered as you spend your first day on the job as an observer, going into the field with a regular crew and observing the field manager or other trainer. For the first three hours of the shift, from about four until seven o’clock, you’ll walk with, watch, and listen to a veteran canvasser. With the two of you role-playing, you’ll practice the organization’s regular pitch several times to warm up. Then for about a half-hour you’ll alternate doors, doing your first canvassing under supervision. Between doors the trainer will give feedback and answer your questions. For the last hour of the evening, from eight to nine, you’ll have a small piece of territory to work on your own. For most people, personal contact with door-todoor solicitors is all from the other side, that is, we’ve been opening doors rather than knocking on them. We typically have a number of popular biases about canvassing and canvassers. We tend to think that being canvassed means being interrupted, annoyed or ripped off, and that door-to-door solicitors are the dregs of the work force. The reality is quite different. Most social change canvassers are well educated and deeply committed to what they’re doing, and canvassers play an important role in building strong organizations and movements.
The European Council and The Council of the European Union: Shapers of a European Confederation
The European Council and the Council of the European Union play key roles in the European Union.' The European Council is largely concerned with system-steering, while the Council of the EU undertakes sectoral policymaking. What is common to these roles is the balancing act carried out by both institutions. Both have to mediate the centripetal dynamics of integration, termed cooperative confederalism here, and the centrifugal dynamics which are found in the strongly entrenched territorial nature of power, centered on the member states. Using new institutionalist analysis, the article illuminates different facets of the two institutions 'functioning in mediating the two dynamics.