Much that was designed to foster grassroots participation has been captured by incumbents and special interests. It can be difficult, in a raucous town meeting, to look around and remember who is not there: the mother working two jobs, the young family who couldn’t afford the apartment they so badly wanted to move into. “This is what democracy looks like” is a common chant at protests, but what democracy should look like is a devilishly hard question to answer.
