Tom Atlee's The Tao of Democracy is a concise and well-written guide to a new form of participatory democracy based on his experience of the “collective intelligence,” or higher wisdom, that can arise through group dialogue. Atlee, a political activist since the sixties, first discovered the practical potential of collective intelligence during the Great Peace March for Nuclear Disarmament in 1986. He and a large group of marchers were struggling with conflict in their ranks and they experienced, through a simple conversation, the emergence of unexpected unity and surprisingly creative solutions to problems that had plagued them for months. This miraculous alignment behind a common purpose left a lasting impression on Atlee, sparking more than a decade of research into the phenomenon of collective intelligence—research he compiles here for the first time.

Though I was initially put off by The Tao of Democracy's textbook format, Atlee includes many narrative examples throughout, and his visionary storytelling not only won me over, but was also deeply inspiring. The book is an excellent primer on a wide variety of methods for developing collective intelligence, including the technique of Dynamic Facilitation and the World Café system for large groups. Its extensive bibliography and wealth of references alone make it an ideal handbook for anyone interested in learning more about this exciting new field.

Atlee's greatest emphasis, however, is on the potential of collective intelligence to enrich society and strengthen democracy, specifically through what he calls “citizen deliberative councils.” These civic assemblies, which have been successfully convened in over sixteen countries, typically bring twelve average citizens with a diversity of viewpoints together for a period of several days in order to examine a particular community issue. Tackling such problems as the separatist movement in Quebec, agricultural reform in India, and environmental protection in Denmark, citizen deliberative councils have produced remarkably innovative solutions that transcend partisan politics. But even more fascinating than the practical resolutions these councils have developed is the shared humanity that participants discover as they move beyond opposing and often charged views on the issues. This is participatory democracy at its finest, where concrete results emerge hand-in-hand with increased human intimacy and solidarity. Atlee's clear synthesis of this promising new paradigm makes The Tao of Democracy an important resource for twenty-first-century transformation.