Solutions to our ailing democracy lie outside the U.S.

Every couple of years for the past decade, I’ve helped bring together scholars, journalists, activists, election administrators and politicians who work on participatory democracy, including the initiative and referendum processes for which California is well known.

[...] I do it because, by listening to people from around the world explain their challenges, I get a much clearer idea of what’s wrong with our version of democracy, and how we might improve it.

Goodness knows that such understanding is lacking; surveys show big majorities of Californians know little about the basic functions of their state and local governments.

Singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow has been mocked for circulating a petition to limit the poison of endless electoral politics and adopt a shorter election cycle, like those of Canada and Great Britain.

The resistance to foreign ideas is especially strong in Sacramento, where political staffers heap ridicule on those who make such suggestions (I speak from personal experience).

Nearly every democratic institution in this country — the presidency, Congress, law enforcement, state election officials, the media — has lost credibility in 2016.

In California, our first open U.S. Senate seat in a generation produced a desultory race, and we turned direct democracy into a bludgeon, littering ballots with 17 complicated and confusing statewide initiatives.

Despite widespread disillusionment with aspects of our democracy, there are few big ideas being advanced for reform.

In San Sebastian this week, I’m looking forward to learning more from the world: about how Germans support grassroots groups that bring ideas to the ballot, how Tunisians are creating a new system of local government, how the cities of Seoul and Vienna have found smarter ways to engage citizens in local questions.