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Praise for The Tao of Democracy
by Tom
Atlee
Review
excerpts.
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here for more complete reviews.
FIVE
STARS: Utterly Sensational - A
basic book for humanity
I cannot say enough good things about this book.
-- Robert D. Steele, Top 100 Reviewer at Amazon.com
[More...]
The Tao of Democracy is a
deep and thorough study of what wise self governance can really look
like.
Readable and accessible, it is full of stories and anecdotes
demonstrating the magic of this newer approach. -- Barbara L. Valocore
in The Bridging Tree [More...]
The Tao of Democracy is a
concise and well-written guide to a new form of participatory
democracy based on "collective intelligence." A
deeply inspiring,
important resource for twenty-first century transformation. --
Elisa Mishory in What Is Enlightenment?
[More...]
FIVE STARS:
The Tao Of Democracy offers the reader a
positive viewpoint for creating a
democracy founded upon wisdom, citizen participation, and a culture
of dialogue. -- Midwest Book Review [More...]
Co-intelligence operates on many different levels, and
in this easy to understand and
very important book Atlee
shows us how to apply it to building a holistic politics. A
useful guidebook for world-transformers.
-- Tikkun [More...]
The Tao of Democracy is as much
a manual for positive change as it as a
philosophical treatise on democratic principles. It has the
essential wisdom to make a huge difference.
-- William L. Seavey in HopeDance
[More...]
 Reviews
of The Tao of Democracy
The
Bridging Tree - Spring 2004
Barbara L. Valocore
Tom Atlee’s recent book, The Tao of Democracy,
is a coherent and compelling look at the undeniable fact of humanity’s
interdependence, diversity and innate desire for connection, mutual respect
and inclusive governance. He has made a deep and thorough study of what
wise self governance can really look like, how any group of citizens can
create a new and more effective democratic process and how humanity can
build a system based on “what intelligence would look like if we
took wholeness, interconnectedness, and co-creativity seriously”.
Atlee’s favorite definition of co-intelligence is,
“the ability to generate or evoke creative responses and initiatives
that integrate the diverse gifts of all for the benefit of all.”
This might sound complicated, until one examines his thesis which rests
on the idea that diversity within a group generates a tension which can
be harnessed into a creative force to be used to everyone’s advantage.
He describes many types of tools and techniques in practice for many years,
such as citizen juries, stakeholder dialogues, dynamic facilitation, citizen
deliberative councils, open space technology, listening and study circles
and more.
He encourages us to harness our collective wisdom to solve
the social and environmental problems of our own making and argues that
there are multiple ways of knowing that translate into collective rather
than collected intelligence. The reader soon becomes painfully aware that
the current system of democracy in the United States excludes many voices
and polarizes the issues thereby disenfranchising many valuable opinions.
Utilizing a comprehensive bibliography, Atlee draws from
years of global community experimentation and process-oriented approaches,
and includes steps highlighting how we can move from “power politics”
to co-operative and holistic politics.
Readable and accessible, The Tao of Democracy is
full of meaningful and informative stories and anecdotes demonstrating
the magic of this newer approach to public debate and dialogue. Organized
as a research tool, it is rich with helpful and relevant websites and
resources for expanding our knowledge and understanding of this issue.
Whatever your political affiliation, the book demonstrates how a deeper
interconnectedness can transform our polarized political systems into
more inclusive and participatory approaches. [Back
to top...]
Tikkun
- May 2003
Co-intelligence, the ability to generate or evoke creative
responses and initiatives that integrate the diverse gifts of all for
the benefit of all, is the path to building a world that will work. Intelligence
of this sort operates on many different levels, and in this easy to understand
and very important book Atlee shows us how to apply it to building a holistic
politics that has striking similarities with the Emancipatory Spirituality
that we’ve advocated in Tikkun. A useful guidebook for
world-transformers. [Back
to top...]
What
Is Enlightenment? - May/July 2004
Elisa Mishory
Tom Atlee's The Tao of Democracy is a concise and
well-written guide to a new form of participatory democracy based on his
experience of the "collective intelligence," or higher wisdom,
that can arise through group dialogue. Atlee, a political activist since
the sixties, first discovered the practical potential of collective intelligence
during the Great Peace March for Nuclear Disarmament in 1986. He and a
large group of marchers were struggling with conflict in their ranks and
they experienced, through a simple conversation, the emergence of unexpected
unity and surprisingly creative solutions to problems that had plagued
them for months. This miraculous alignment behind a common purpose left
a lasting impression on Atlee, sparking more than a decade of research
into the phenomenon of collective intelligence -- research he compiles
here for the first time.
Though I was initially put off by The Tao of Democracy's
textbook format, Atlee includes many narrative examples throughout, and
his visionary storytelling not only won me over, but was also deeply inspiring.
The book is an excellent primer on a wide variety of methods for developing
collective intelligence, including the technique of Dynamic Facilitation
and the World Café system for large groups. Its extensive bibliography
and wealth of references alone make it an ideal handbook for anyone interested
in learning more about this exciting new field.
Atlee's greatest emphasis, however, is on the potential
of collective intelligence to enrich society and strengthen democracy,
specifically through what he calls "citizen deliberative councils."
These civic assemblies, which have been successfully convened in over
sixteen countries, typically bring twelve average citizens with a diversity
of viewpoints together for a period of several days in order to examine
a particular community issue. Tackling such problems as the separatist
movement in Quebec, agricultural reform in India, and environmental protection
in Denmark, citizen deliberative councils have produced remarkably innovative
solutions that transcend partisan politics. But even more fascinating
than the practical resolutions these councils have developed is the shared
humanity that participants discover as they move beyond opposing and often
charged views on the issues. This is participatory democracy at its finest,
where concrete results emerge hand-in-hand with increased human intimacy
and solidarity. Atlee's clear synthesis of this promising new paradigm
makes The Tao of Democracy an important resource for twenty-first
century transformation. [Back
to top...]
HopeDance
#40 - September/October 2003
William L. Seavey
56 years on the planet has taught Tom Atlee a thing or two,
and The Tao of Democracy is his seminal opus, a book to empower
activists locally or internationally…. a book to suggest that a
“co-intelligent” approach to creating democratic decision-making
in communities and nations can and will result in far simpler and sustainable
solutions.
Atlee has assembled many examples of co-intelligence/citizen
deliberation which have been able to effect hugely positive changes throughout
the world – in a prison population in Maine, a corporation in Brazil,
a sustainability group in Seattle, a dying village in India, and a separatist
province in Canada.
This is as much a manual for positive change as it as a
philosophical treatise on democratic principles. I certainly hope it doesn’t
get lost on the shelves somewhere, because it has the essential wisdom
to make a huge difference. [Back
to top...]
Amazon
Top 100 Reviewer: Robert D. Steele
- Oakton, VA, USA
FIVE STARS: Utterly Sensational -- Basic Book for
Humanity, 11/30/2003
I see so many things starting to come together around the
world and through books. The Internet has opened the door for a cross-fertilization
of knowledge and emotion and concern across all boundaries such as the
world has never seen before, and it has made possible a new form of structured
collective intelligence such as H.G. Wells (World Brain), Howard
Bloom (Global Brain), Pierre Levy (Collective Intelligence),
Willis Harman (Global Mind Change), and I (New Craft of Intelligence--Personal,
Public, & Political), could never have imagined.
This book is better than all of ours, for the simple reason
that it speaks directly to the possibilities of deliberative democracy
through citizen study circles and wisdom councils.
The book is also helpful as a pointer to a number of web
sites, all of them very immature at this point, but also emergent in a
most constructive way--web sites focused on public issues, public agendas,
new forms of democratic organization, and so on.
Still lacking--and I plan to encourage special organizations
such as the Center for American Progress to implement something like this--is
a central hub where a citizen can go, type in their zip code, and immediately
be in touch with the following (as illustrated on page 133 of New
Craft):
- a weekly report on the state of any issue (disease, water, security,
whatever);
- distance learning on that issue;
- an expert forum on that issue;
- a virtual library on that issue including links to the deep web substance
on that issue, not just to home pages of sponsoring organizations;
- a global calendar of all events scheduled on that issue, including
legislation and conferences or hearings;
- a rolodex or who's who at every level for that issue;
- a virtual budget showing what is being spent on that issue at every
level; and
- an active map showing the status of that issue in time and space terms,
with links to people, documents, etcetera.
I cannot say enough good things about this book. If the
authors cited above have been coming at the same challenge from a "top
down" perspective, then Tom Atlee, the author of this book, gets
credit for defining a "bottom up" approach that is sensible
and implementable. This book focuses on what comes next, after everyone
gets tired of just "meeting up" or "just blogging."
This book is about collective intelligence for the common good, and it
is a very fine book. [Back
to top...]
Midwest
Book Review - May 16, 2003
FIVE STARS: A thoughtful and philosophical work,
Tom Atlee's The Tao Of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence
To Create A World That Works For All offers the reader a positive
viewpoint on and for creating a democracy founded upon wisdom, citizen
participation, a culture of dialogue, and in an harmonious balance that
encourages the best in people. A thoughtful and philosophical work written
specifically to stave off the impending self-destructive side of current
civilization, The Tao Of Democracy is recommended reading for
students of Political Science and Philosophy. [Back
to top...]
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