Civil Dialogue - Making a Representative Democracy Work

Although it is true that we live in a democratic country, it is also true that the form of democracy that is practiced in the majority of the communities across this the United States is Representative Democracy.

In a true democracy all citizens have an equal vote or voice in shaping policy. And, although this is a noble thought, as the numbers of citizens increases the efficiency of a pure democratic model decreases, eventually reaching the point where there are too many voices to be heard, and too many varying opinions to be considered, bringing the system to a grinding halt.

It is for these reasons that most democratic nations and states in the world today have chosen a form of representative democracy. In this system, the citizens elect representatives to participate in the setting of policies, and governing the community.

A representative democracy requires that citizens have access to their government. This gives the citizens an opportunity to have a dialogue with their elected representatives about issues that affect the community, and gives the representatives a chance to connect with the community to hear local concerns. This keeps communication lines open between the representative and the electors.

But it is in this critical communication process that today's democracy appear to break down. Good communications depends on what is called “Civil Dialogue”. In this case, civil means a respectful, polite (based on the norms of society) exchange, that provides common courtesy to both the citizen and the representative. Dialogue implies both the act of speaking of meaningful community issues, and listening to both the meaning and the concern of the other party. This is a two-way process. Both the citizen and representative must participate is this civil dialogue.

In today’s society American’s have been taught that communication with their representatives must be loud, sarcastic, demeaning, disrespectful, pointed, and full of sound-bites. Shakespeare would have called this “…a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”.

John Cavanaugh, of the Kettering Foundation, in an article titled Understanding the Nature of Representation in a Democracy (Connections, July 2003) described the difficulties of a representative democracy this way:

The most obvious and perhaps largest disconnect between citizens and institutions is the one that separates “We, the People” from what is perceived as “They, the Government.” The public’s generic dissatisfaction with their relationship with government officials strikes at the heart of the Kettering Foundation’s key research questions in the Public-Government Program area: How can citizens and officeholders relate more productively in addressing public policy issues?


Our research to date shows that the means officials and citizens typically use to interact with each other (public hearings, for example) are often quite unsatisfactory, to the point of making a bad relationship even worse. Hence our studies have attempted to identify the causes of the poor working relationship. One root cause seems to be the inability of citizens to appreciate the problems facing officeholders in their sworn duties as political representatives.

Good government starts with good communications between the people and their representatives. It will be strengthened by high quality civil dialogue based on mutual respect. And, it is reinforced by an understanding that the governmental systems we have created require both citizens and representatives to carry out their respective duties.

It is common to think of the duties of the representative to the citizen, but it is equally important to remember that a well informed, educated, participative citizenry is part of the formula for success. Neither can shed the mantle of responsibility. If one fails to perform, the entire system will fail.

Next time you want to communicate with your elected representatives, keep these thoughts in mind. Your participation is critical to the success of our democratic system.