EMERGENT BUDGET DEMOCRACY? BFD has a recent post on "emergent democracy" that might be worth considering in connection with the Cleveland Budget Perplex. The author BFD links to is talking about a new variety of self-organizing Web participation in the civic process, exemplified by the Howard Dean campaign. Since the majority of Cleveland residents are probably still without home computers, let alone good Internet skills, the relevance here may seem farfetched. But the fact is that an awful lot of Cleveland voters have crossed that divide in the past couple of years. Suppose the Campbell Administration actually put the numbers on the Net, where everyone can see them, and urged its constituents to start a serious conversation about them. Where might that lead?

Emergent democracy is about leadership through giving up control, activating the people to engage through deliberation and action, and allowing emergent order to grow from the grass roots.

Maybe we could use a helping of that in Cleveland.