Participatory democracy
From Internet: Knowledge and Community
Addams and Dewey imagined that democracy was an organic union of individuals. They believed that democracy and community were essentially "the awareness of participation in this social organism". Dewey stated that, "regarded as an idea, democracy is not an alternative to other principles of associated life. It is the idea of community life itself... the clear consciousness of a communal life, in all its implications, constitutes the idea of democracy".
Addams believed that to build a participatory democracy, one must live it. She became the neighbor of the people she served. She had dialogues between the residents, immigrants, and others in the city. Full participation in dialogues and decision making was not just the means for achieving democratic outcomes, it was itself constitutive of the social democracy that Hull House envisaged.
