Leadership is the new Citizenship

Civic Entrepreneurship  : Unfortunately, democracy isn’t e-commerce

I devised a game I have been playing ever since. Virtually every time I meet a group of people to talk things like change and leadership, the future of work and politics, the future of democracy, I ask: “If you are under 35, please raise your hand.”

On lucky occasions, about a third to half of the room takes the shape of waved arms. Ten, I continue: “If you are engaged or you are planning to engage in politics or civil service, please keep your hand up. The rest please put it down.” At this point, a usually blushing audience withdraws, with very few exceptions.

I have been playing this game with groups as large as 50 people to as small as 2 people, from the stage of the Social Media to high school classrooms. The number of players changes, but the results don’t: in my experience only 3-5% of those who raise their hand keep it up. Yet, virtually everyone – whether hand raiser or not – is craving change and voicing dissatisfaction with today’s state of affairs.

Change is not a one-click online order; that voting trumps or Modi’s democracy in pajamas on social media. Perhaps, used to the comfortable immediacy of Amazon deliveries, too many of us have resigned from their role as active citizens. Perhaps, we expected democratic change to come about in the same seamless fashion. Unfortunately, democracy isn’t e-commerce.

The paradox is that our complacency as citizens has been growing hand in hand with distrust, not just of institutions but also of democracy itself. In most democracies, voter turnout has been suffering a wave of decline. This has been especially true for younger voters, who have managed to convince themselves to be surprised at the results of that referendum in the US (Trump), or BREXIT or of more recent electoral outcomes. The worrying consequence of youth losing the elections game seems to be their loss of faith in democracy.

Surely, the dog is biting its own tail. Yet, over time, this vicious cycle of cynicism can lead to a democratic breakdown. Today, low trust in politicians discourages participation. Thus, certain groups end up underrepresented. This in turn leads to even lower trust in the governing, which makes the governed ever more reluctant to participate. So the vicious cycle carries on. In the meantime, we keep asking: Where is the leader that will save us?

In parallel, many of those who don’t show up at the polls are retreating to an online world where democratic discussion is overtaken by radical deafness. The perception of having the truth at click-length and the chance to voice it with the same ease focuses us on re-tweets rather than respect, ‘likes’ rather than listening. So we lock ourselves up in filter bubbles, losing the ability to tell fiction from fact.  As we retreat from citizenship, we are also less trained to exercise it in a world that gets more complex by the second.

Luckily, there are signs that tides may be turning. The sentiment of resistance that has erupted after undesired electoral outcomes and the long-matured appetite for change are now mixing into progressive creativity: citizen entrepreneurs are on the rise. 

Lately, I have been adding a twist to my game: I no longer ask only the under-35 to participate. So it goes: “If you are a citizen, please raise your hand.” The results marginally change. And so will the things we dislike in our democracies, if we do not engage.

Civic entrepreneurship is about more than marching: it is about transforming collective action into specific projects. It is the developer who gathers his community to develop tech solutions to welcome refugees. It is the citizen that starts a petition to keep water a public good or universities open. It is the community that participates in setting the budget of their municipality, bringing evidence and lived experience into policy making.

In the 21st century, leadership can be written as citizenship. Surely, parties and institutions could be made more accessible. But, today, politics can be more than partisanship. This is my plea for civic entrepreneurship. Will you keep your hand up?

(The views expressed in this article are edited and compiled by the author. All credits to original writers of facts.)