Editing New World Alliance (section)

== History ==

=== The organizing tour ===
[[File:Mark Satin in 1978.jpg|thumb |upright=1.0 |right |alt=Determined-looking young man against city skyline. |[[Mark Satin]] at the start on his 24-city organizing tour for the Alliance, Vancouver, Canada, 1978. (Photo by [[Erich Hoyt]].)]]

Organizing for the Alliance began in 1978, when author [[Mark Satin]] embarked on a two-year tour of North America.<ref name=Wells /><ref name=Lipnack /> Although the tour was initially designed to promote one of his books at conferences and other events, it quickly expanded into an effort to locate those who wanted to start a new political organization with a new political perspective.<ref name=Wells /> Satin told the authors of the book ''Networking'' that he traveled "systematically" to 24 cities and regions across the continent.  He was especially interested in finding people committed enough to want to fill out an extensive questionnaire about the future organization.<ref name=Lipnack /> According to one magazine, by the summer of 1979 Satin had traveled over 50,000 miles, mostly by [[Greyhound Lines|Greyhound bus]].<ref name=Wells />  He stopped when he found 500 people that were willing to answer the questionnaire.<ref name=Lipnack />

=== The questionnaire ===
The questionnaire, when finally composed and sent out, came to 21 pages.<ref name=Parkin />  One political science text later compared it to a [[Delphi method|Delphi]] survey.<ref name=Preface />  It consisted largely of multiple-choice questions<ref name=Paulson>Belden Paulson, ''Odyssey of a Practical Visionary'', Thistlefield Books, 2009, pp.&nbsp;500–03.  {{ISBN|978-0-9816906-1-2}}. The author is identified as a political scientist at [[University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee]].</ref> about what a transformation-oriented political organization should consist of.<ref name=Olson />  Some questions dealt with policy; for example, "How can we make small family farming more of an option for Americans?"  Others dealt with structure – "How large should the Board of Directors be?"<ref name=Lipnack />

Of the 500 people the questionnaire was sent to, 350 responded.<ref name=Lipnack />  The author of the book ''Green Parties'' described the respondents as people involved in personal-growth work and social change.<ref name=Parkin />  The editors of a book on transformational politics described them as "academics, policy experts, and political activists interested in this emerging political perspective."<ref name=Preface />

While it is not clear how closely the organization followed the questionnaire in shaping itself, one political scientist thought it significant that the "overwhelming source" of U.S. political problems among questionnaire-answerers was found to be "our attitudes and values."<ref name=Paulson />

=== "Governing Council" ===
[[File:Kirk Sale and Bob Olson.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15 |right |alt=Five happy-looking people at a lawn party. |GC chairperson Bob Olson (second from right) was a project director at the U.S. [[Office of Technology Assessment]].<ref name=GC />  GC member [[Kirkpatrick Sale]] (center) was a [[Neo-Luddism|Neo-Luddite]] theorist.<ref>Steven Jones, ''Against Technology: From the Luddites to Neo-Luddism'', Routledge, 2006, pp.&nbsp;23–24.  {{ISBN|978-0-415-97868-2}}.</ref>]]

The questionnaire determined that a 39-member board of directors, called the Governing Council (GC), should be chosen to run the Alliance.  In addition, it determined that the GC should be chosen from among the questionnaire-answerers themselves.  Eighty-nine of them volunteered to stand for the GC, and the first 39 GCers were chosen by a variety of means: 40% by mail ballot, 30% by lottery, 20% by Satin (who'd met the questionnaire-answerers during his bus tour), and 10% by four women.<ref name=Lipnack />

The selection process produced a diverse GC.  A political scientist pointed to "teachers, feminists, think-tank members."<ref name=Stein />  A journalist called attention to a [[Ronald Reagan]] speechwriter, a former [[Robert F. Kennedy]] speechwriter, a corporate vice-president, and a spiritual teacher.<ref name=Cox>Ted Cox, "New Age People: Alternative to Militarism," ''The Churchman'', August–September 1980, p.&nbsp;7.</ref> A spokesperson for the Alliance touted "a co-author of the [[Pentagon Papers]]" as well as "several people from the erstwhile counterculture."<ref>Olson, "New World," p.&nbsp;14.</ref>

In 1980, the 39 GC members included [[James Benson|Jim Benson]], [[Clement Bezold]], [[Lex Hixon]], [[Miller Hudson]], [[John McClaughry]], [[Corinne McLaughlin]], [[Kirkpatrick Sale]], [[Mark Satin]], [[Utne Reader#History|Eric Utne]], Robert Buxbaum of the [[New York City Council|Office of the New York City Council President]], Jeff Cox of the [[The Rodale Institute|Rodale Institute]], Leonard Duhl of [[UC Berkeley]], Bethe Hagens of [[Governors State University]], Donald Keys of the [[World Federalism|World Federalists]], James Ogilvy of [[SRI International]], Bob Olson of the [[Office of Technology Assessment|Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress]], James Turner of ''[[The Chemical Feast]]'', Gail Whitty of the [[National Organization for Women|NOW-Detroit]] board of directors, Malon Wilkus of the [[Federation of Egalitarian Communities]], and Rarihokwats, founder of ''Akwesasne Notes'' newspaper from the [[Akwesasne|Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne]].<ref name=GC>"New World Alliance Governing Council, 1980–1981," in New World Alliance, ''[http://www.radicalmiddle.com/Platform2.pdf A Transformation Platform: The Dialogue Begins]'', New World Alliance publication, 1981, p.&nbsp;98.  Booklet, no ISBN assigned.</ref>{{refn|This list of Governing Council members and their organizational affiliations is drawn entirely from the "Governing Council" page of the Alliance's political platform.<ref name=GC /> No other source was used.  It is a selective list, consisting of all GC members that have biographies on Wikipedia, and most GCers whose then-current affiliations – clearly stated on the "Governing Council" page – were to organizations with articles now on Wikipedia.  To be the subject of a Wikipedia article, individuals and organizations must meet certain criteria; see [[WP:Notability]].|group=nb}}  Besides being on the GC, Olson served as chairperson of the Alliance.<ref name=Olson />

=== Structure and process ===
[[File:15th Street Financial District.jpg|thumb |upright=0.9 |right |alt=Stately looking buildings on a downtown street |The Alliance's national office was two blocks from the [[White House]], in the light brown building midway down the row of buildings here.{{refn|According to journalist Ted Cox, the address was 733 Fifteenth Street N.W., Washington, D.C.<ref name=Cox />  The address is given in Wikimedia's description of this photograph; to read it, click on the photo and then scroll down.  The description identifies 733 as the sixth building from the right, and viewers should note that three narrow buildings to its immediate left are difficult to distinguish from one another.  The entire stretch of buildings constitutes part of what is now known as the [[Financial Historic District (Washington, D.C.)|Financial Historic District]].|group=nb}}]]

The Governing Council met semi-annually.<ref name=Marilyn>Marilyn Ferguson, "Foreword," in Mark Satin, ''New Options for America: The Second American Experiment Has Begun'', The Press at California State University, Fresno, 1991, p.&nbsp;xiii.  {{ISBN|978-0-8093-1794-3}}.</ref>  There was also a Coordinating Committee,<ref name=Olson /> and a national office was established two blocks from the [[White House]] in Washington, D.C.<ref name=Cox />

But one of the Alliance's expressed goals was "a politics of participation,"<ref name=Real /> and the GC chose not to run the Alliance from the top down.  The authors of the book ''Networking'' describe the organization as "nonhierarchically structured" and say decisions were made by decentralized committees.<ref name=Lipnack />

There were also local chapters.  Belden Paulson, a political scientist at [[University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee]], says that in the early years the Alliance had "a kind of missionary zeal" to establish local chapters across the U.S.  He reports that 50 people turned up at the initial chapter meeting in Milwaukee and that the group met for several years.<ref name=Paulson />

The Alliance's processes emphasized consensus and even meditation.  An encyclopedia from [[Gale (publisher)|Gale Research]] reports that the Alliance expressed a "commitment to consensus building in all our groups and projects."<ref name=Newsletter>Melton et al., ''Encyclopedia'', p.&nbsp;324 (quoting the Alliance's newsletter).</ref> It also reports that Alliance chapters and projects claimed to use "short periods of silence [in order] to draw on our intuition in making decisions and solving conflicts."<ref name=Newsletter />

=== Projects ===
The Alliance sustained four principal projects.

==== Political platform ====
{{quote box|width=35%|quote="The Transformation Platform of the New World Alliance is different from conventional political platforms in fundamental ways. ...  It is an attempt to ''go beyond the polarity of left-against-right'' by integrating the highest values in our nation's conservative and liberal heritage with the learning that has taken place in recent social movements. ...  It begins – but only ''just'' begins – a reconceptualization or paradigm change ''regarding the very nature of politics''.  We recognize that public policy is only one "face" of politics.  Equally important political work takes place in the community, the workplace, and in personal development and interpersonal relationships."|source=– New World Alliance, introduction to ''A Transformation Platform: The Dialogue Begins'', 1981.<ref>Paulson, ''Odyssey'', p.&nbsp;501 (quoting the Alliance's platform, emphases in Paulson's quoted text).</ref>|style=padding:8px}}

The Alliance produced a 98-page political platform that achieved what one commentator claimed was wide circulation.<ref name=Paulson />  ''A Transformation Platform: The Dialogue Begins'' discussed crime and justice, economics, science and technology, health, the environment, global affairs, and more.<ref name=Lipnack />  It made about 300 specific policy proposals.<ref name=Stein />  But it sought to do more than provide good ideas.  Bob Olson, chair of the Alliance, tried to explain to the [[Association for Humanistic Psychology]] why he felt the platform was unique:

<blockquote> ... we call [it] a ''Living Platform''.  The platform offers concrete political proposals, but doesn't purport to offer final answers.  It includes commentary and dissenting opinion, and it asks readers to criticize it and help improve it, so that over the years ahead it can serve as a focus for thousands of people to cooperate in thinking through the changes we need to make.<ref>Olson, "The New," p.&nbsp;15.</ref></blockquote>

==== "Political Awareness Seminars" ====
These were day-long or weekend experiences designed to make participants more deeply aware of the political process and their own potential for using it to heal society.<ref name=Olson />  To some observers, the seminars functioned primarily to build self-confidence.<ref name=Lipnack />  To Olson, they helped participants discover and merge their visions of a better society, and explore how to implement them.<ref name=Olson />  To the authors of ''Spiritual Politics'', the key part came when participants were asked to act out their feelings toward their political adversaries – and were then told to reverse roles.  "Many deep insights resulted," the authors wrote, "with participants discovering [they] often had problems similar to the ones they accused their adversaries of having."<ref>McLaughlin, ''Spiritual'', p.&nbsp;109.</ref>

==== "Consultations with Elected Officials" ====
[[File:JohnVasconcellosJI1.jpg|thumb |upright=1.0 |right |alt=Head shot of middle-aged man with moustache |California legislator [[John Vasconcellos]] invited people to the Alliance's first "Consultation with Elected Officials" and was a featured speaker there.]]

These were national conferences of "transformation-oriented" politicians,<ref name=Olson /> Alliance GC members, and other interested parties.  Political science professor Belden Paulson, who helped coordinate the first one, in Milwaukee, says he recruited California state legislator [[John Vasconcellos]] and Colorado state legislator [[Miller Hudson]] to invite people to the weekend event and be speakers there.  Sixteen elected officials ended up attending.  There were also eight Alliance GC members, six academics, spiritual writer [[David Spangler]], and some residents of [[Intentional community|intentional communities]].<ref name=Paulson />  According to a letter Paulson quotes from one of the intentional-community residents, there was great tension at the consultation between pragmatists and visionaries – until the last day, when "it all came together, starting with the politicians who, one by one, spoke of how this opened whole new horizons for them."<ref>Paulson, ''Odyssey'', p.&nbsp;502 (quoting letter).</ref>

==== National political newsletter ====
''Renewal'' newsletter attempted to report on current affairs from a transformational perspective.<ref name=Olson />  It also attempted to critically assess relevant groups and books and serve as a forum for activists.<ref name=Stein />  It boasted nine founding sponsors – [[Ernest Callenbach]], [[Willis Harman]], [[Hazel Henderson]], [[Karl Hess]], Patricia Mische (co-author of ''Toward a Human World Order''<ref>Gerald Mische and Patricia Mische, ''Toward a Human World Order: Beyond the National Security Straitjacket'', Paulist Press, 1977.  {{ISBN|978-0-8091-0216-7}}.</ref>), [[Jeremy Rifkin]], [[James Robertson (activist)|James Robertson]], [[Carl Rogers]], and [[John Vasconcellos]].<ref name=Stein />  The newsletter's annual "Transformational Book Award" was voted upon by 70 hand-picked academics and [[think tank]] staffers from across the U.S.<ref name=Sale />

=== Restructuring and dissolution ===
The Alliance restructured itself in 1982.  It decided to close its Washington, D.C. office but keep the Governing Council intact.  Rather than running and funding projects and supporting an organizational infrastructure, it would seek to serve as a kind of umbrella for entrepreneurial, independently run projects.<ref name=Stein />  It dissolved the next year.<ref name=Green>Mark Satin, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20150910021729/http://www.green-horizon.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/GHM_26_web.pdf Miraculous Birth of the 'Ten Key Values' Statement]," ''Green Horizon'' magazine, vol. 9, issue no. 26, Fall–Winter 2012, p.&nbsp;19.  A publication co-edited by [[John Rensenbrink]], co-founder of the [[Green Party of the United States|U.S. Green Party]].  Retrieved April 26, 2016.</ref>