Murray Bookchin argued many times that city life and neighborhood assemblies were the real and the best meaning of politics. This is a good article that describes “participatory budgeting” in Brazil.
What I especially like is how meeting in a municipal setting to decide budgeting priorities would act as a center of unification of work place democracy and consumer groups and neighborhood groups. At the end of the article are some good, provocative questions.
Read more in Grassroots Economic Organizing
