For a number of years I have been obsessed with the project of seeking a much greater level of democracy for our civilisation. A couple of months ago I presented a fairly detailed plan for doing so in my city of Brisbane to the Brisbane Social Forum. Since then a regular informal 'politics in the pub' has occurred every Saturday afternoon at 3.30 in the back room of the Boundary Hotel, Boundary St, West End.

As briefly as possible:

1. This is a plan to build democratic institutions, in which people can disagree in a civilised manner, so previous political affiliations are not only irrelevant but a diversity of such affiliations will probably be crucial to properly promote the project.

2. The plan is to develop permanent community assemblies across Brisbane, according to council ward. We have developed a draft constitution for these assemblies, which is fairly orthodox, except that membership is defined by enrolment to vote in the given ward. So everyone has a legal right to attent, participate, nominate for positions and vote, equally. Once these meetings are promoted and called, an executive is to be elected.

3. These institutions can do whatever they like, from dabbling in local economics (co-ops, collectives, alternative exchange systems), addressing social issues (community watch programs, housing co-ops, soup kitchens, training linkups) to developing policy (on local issues like development criteria, but also on the Iraq war, or anything they like).

4. A delegate can then be nominated, directly from and by the electorate, to run for the respective seat in City Hall. This person is neither independent (as she has an organisation behind her to develop policy and mobilise for election) nor a party-person. And depending on the success of the meetings, this person, who may have no ambition for power at all, has an enormous weight of credibility before the campaign starts. On the other hand, a sitting member who people trust might decide to jump ship and make the people their organisation rather than their party.

This is a plan for quite a radical amendment to our democratic institutions - an added, people's layer of governance, no less. It's a plan everyday people can implement in a legal, accountable way, and if they do, the political difficulties in resisting the plan would be great indeed.

I have tried to make the explanation completely brief, leaving almost all explanation and detail to the imagination. But that might be OK, because others' imaginations might be better than mine. If you live in Brisbane and your imagination has been sparked at all, please come and talk to me one Saturday (including today).