Strictly speaking, this post of Peter Levine‘s is more about volunteering than participation in policy making, but it’s worth a look.

“My best guess is that modern civic engagement depends on a funded infrastructure. You can’t tutor kids if the school lays off its literacy coordinator. You can’t read to kids if the library branch is closed. Thus, when the economy really gets bad, even though the need for engagement is high, opportunities suddenly dry up and civic health falls.”

On a tangential note, here’s a post on Boing Boing about Philadelphia’s libraries. Or lack of them (Via Bill Thompson).

“Picture an entire city, a modern, wealthy place, in the richest country in the world, in which the vital services provided by libraries are withdrawn due to political brinksmanship and an unwillingness to spare one banker’s bonus worth of tax-dollars to sustain an entire region’s connection with human culture and knowledge and community.

Think of it and ask yourself what the hell has happened to us.”