Page 20 - Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections

18 A Project of the UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF) How to use this Handbook Democracy is about communities making their own trusted decisions. Voting for representatives and proposals is one mechanism, but we start from the position that we need to do more. This Handbook is meant to help those who want to do more to understand how to take that first step and deliver a successful project. This means that throughout the book, we won’t tell you what to do: the emphasis is on posing questions so you can make a design with your local context in mind. No single project or process is a golden key letting any community make perfectly trusted local decisions. But there are a small number of fundamental principles that are repeated in each project. These principles are core to shifting how public decision-making is made – away from opinion and toward considered judgement. To get started, you’ll get the most of this Handbook if you read it and write all over it. We’ll pose questions throughout, starting right here.