Transparency and Partisanship

What you can do to ensure transparent government right now:

Attend your city council or school board meeting. Just being there is a big step towards ensuring that elected officials are making decisions in a way that allows access to and input from citizens.
One person doesn’t need to cover all the meetings. Get a group of friends, concerned citizens or neighbors together and divide up the meetings.
Report what you hear at the meetings. Tell your friends. Tell a local paper. Tell us.
Contact us to disucss other ways you can ensure your local government is transparent.

Our main questions:

What should be the role of partisanship in running Minnesota government?
What should be the role of partisanship in our elections?
Is partisanship healthy or destructive for the system?
What are the measures or steps that can be taken to ensure that discussions are meaningful and not simply filled with negative partisan rhetoric?

An Appreciation of Partisanship- A special issue of CATO Unbound from the CATO Institute
"Can Partisanship Save Citizenship" Henry Farrell explores the history of partisanship
"Partisanship is Good" Yuval Levin argues that partisanship is essential to a healthy society
"The Case for Partisanship" Matthew Ygleias argues taht partisanship is good for America
"Bipartisanship Is a Silly Beltway Obsession" Thomas Frank argues good policy matters more than bipartisanship
"Divided We Stand" Sam Haselby on bipartisanship in American elections
"Partisanship:Still Half-Empty" Brink Lindsey's response to a defense of partisanship
"Policy and The Partisan Divide" Rebecca W. Rimel's address to the Commonwealth Club
"Partisan Polarization Intensifes in 2004 Election" -Washington Post looks at how the country voted