I have often proclaimed democracy to be the default position of Americans, a confidence reinforced by my experience with Portland neighborhood associations over the past 45 years. But I now accept the view that democracies are a rare and fragile form, hugely dependent on cultural and political traditions difficult to assemble but easily dismantled.
My embedded coverage of grassroots organizations has been telling me this all along while I optimistically saw mostly brightness and well-meaning people. I still see community activists in that light, but I am now thinking more deeply about the notable occasions when leaders run them off the rails. It is not the norm, and most activists may serve for years without seeing it. But the evidence is unmistakable.
Here’s the test: What happens when leadership consistently exercises inappropriate power and when counter-views are actively dismissed or thwarted? Do organizations self-correct? Do individuals stand up and demand accountability, and if they do, do others join them? Or do the mini moguls get their way until they move on of their own accord, leaving behind a weakened organization that never makes sense of what happened?
Unfortunately, it is too often the latter. Chairs of these organizations have a larger stake in these power struggles than their dissenters. Some board members may grouse privately or raise modestly framed points at meetings, but few risk a showdown they might lose, thereby jeopardizing friendships and their standing within the organization.
A few examples may be helpful in understanding these “threats to democracy” that have swirled in local neighborhood affairs I have covered.
The president of a neighborhood association that became dormant under her leadership nevertheless was able to remain chair of the coalition of inner Westside neighborhood associations and rule it autocratically. Even after she resigned from that chair, she refused to share her association’s membership list, preventing other citizens from calling a meeting to elect new leaders. The coalition supported her in blocking a revival of the association for more than a year. Coalition directors would not cross her wishes even after she had left the board.
I was banned from attending public meetings of the same coalition later for reporting on a coalition staff member’s grievance against a board member, a grievance the board wanted to keep private. The board voted to keep me out of meetings that were contractually required to be open to all, as well as to cease all business dealings with the Examiner. The motion passed 9-2.
Another association president erased or refused to share recordings of meetings, even after the coalition ruled that he was required to do so. His board took his side without hearing any counterevidence and allowed him to continue defying their obligation under Oregon Public Meetings Law.
The most glaring example of dictatorial control at the grassroots has been the Food Front co-op debacle. For decades, board members tightened their control over all facets of operation until membership democracy existing in form only. After the store closed two years ago, the board chair made all decisions, interpreting membership input to meet his goals. He was overthrown too late to save a highly popular opportunity to sell to Market of Choice.
These petty dictators were not careful about violating rules and requirements. Defying norms and getting away with it establishes new norms, wearing down and further compromising those who should be gatekeepers. Restoring proper practices would call attention to prior laxity, inviting a soul-searching that would not be comfortable for any involved.
Whether on the national or hyperlocal level, unchecked autocrats degrade society and its capacity to self-govern. We should not be surprised. It is predictable and has been happening all around us.
How do we overcome the cancer within? Constant vigilance born in the knowledge that everything we have built can be lost.
Benjamin Franklin famously described the kind of government that was created by the Constitutional Convention in 1787: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
What did Franklin know that we have forgotten?
As a fairly typical Portland progressive myself, you are speaking about something that I thought conservatives were always guilty of, waaay more than liberals. But here you outline how that is not necessarily true. When people obtain any kind of power in a political environment, even a liberal one, they are loath to give it up. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
One need only look at the sad remains of Food Front for an example of what happens when a board member grabs power and then refuses to share it with its membership.