Week puts democracy in spotlight

At first blush it might be tempting to dismiss Jeff Nielsen's idea as simply a civics lesson. (And could there be a duller word in the English language?)

But Nielsen, despite his Utah County guy-next-door demeanor, is something of a revolutionary. He doesn't just want to teach about democracy, he wants you to actually help govern America. He wants you to not just vote but to serve on randomly chosen citizens councils that help make policy. He wants the Legislature to mandate those councils and wants citizens to be paid to participate. He believes that democracy means that our elected representatives are not our leaders but our employees.

Nielsen teaches philosophy at Westminster College and Utah Valley State College. He also used to teach at Brigham Young University, but his contract was not renewed after he wrote an op-ed piece last year supporting gay marriage. Clearly he does not recoil from controversial topics (much to his wife's dismay, he says). He can also take a topic as routine as democracy and bring to it a radical spin.

Last year, Nielsen started what he calls the Democracy House Project, going into people's living rooms to encourage them to really think about what democracy requires. This summer he helped Salt Lake City's Office of Diversity run a Citizens Council on Immigration, an experiment he hoped would bring people with opposing ideas together to respectfully discuss immigration, a topic so divisive that some days it seems to be tearing America apart.

And Sunday, along with Mayor Rocky Anderson, he helped launch Democracy Week. Like Anderson, Nielsen comes from a place of earnest belief in the desire of ordinary people to get fired up about abstract ideas and their own role as citizens.

The agenda for Democracy Week includes these enthusiastic suggestions:

Monday, Sept. 3: Residents are encouraged to walk around their neighborhood and talk to five people they don't know, then "share with these people their thoughts on democracy and citizen involvement."

Wednesday, Sept. 5: "Residents are encouraged to research a public policy topic of importance from objective, nonpartisan sources. Then write down three legitimate reasons that support their opinion and three reasons that support the opposing position."

When a reporter wonders if, um, people will actually do any of this, Nielsen laughs his easy, pleasant laugh. "I don't know why I'm so optimistic," he says. "I have no reason to be. I think it's a character defect."