t Democracy Watch: Sven Bellamy Features Editor "In a Democracy, politics are too important to be left to politicians. All citizens must strive to understand politics, for if they do not, then politi- cians are liable to corner them with disastrous results for all."—Macdonald Burbidge, 1990 A democracy cannot exist without active participation of its citizens. Each time a crowd of activists gather to express concern, discontent, or support for a cause; each time citizens write a letter, or make a telephone call to an elected official disclosing concern or expressing discontent, democracy is being exercised. One Person Can Make a Difference In the 60’s Ralph Nader, a Princeton law graduate, began to write a book about lack of government regulation regarding automobile safety. He faced tremendous opposition from General Motors, one of the largest corporations in the world at that time, to the extent where women were hired to entrap Nader in an episode of moral disrepute and blackmail. However, a journalist friend broke the story in The New Republic, soliciting attention from the US senate, ultimately forcing an apology from the president of GM. This single incident launched auto- mobile safety into the public centre stage and drove Nader’s book Unsafe at Any Speed to become a national bestseller in the States. It also did something else. The Nader case showed that a single determined per- son, with a focused goal and intelligent ambition, is able to make a difference, even if taking on a corporate giant. The formation of watchdog groups, whether citizen advocate groups or student activist groups, serve to strengthen the voice of people. The first of Nader’s student advocate groups was formed in 1968. The group of seven student lawyers began inves- tigating the American Federal Trade Commission, an organization that was supposed to protect consumers from defective products, fraudulent busi- ness practices and deceptive advertis- ing. The student crusaders released a report revealing an agency, "fat with cronyism, torpid through inbreeding, The fictive fictivist unusual even for Washington, manipu- lated by commercial predators, impervious to governmental and public monitors." The report was so effective that U.S. senators began to take notice, ultimately leading to the revamping of the FTC headquarters, and internal management structures. In the years that followed, inspired by the success of the FTC report, student activists flocked to work for Nader. These groups began producing reports that were explosive and revealing. Washington Post journalist William Greider picked up the story and likened the ad hoc groups to intellec- tual S.W.A.T. teams naming them, “"Nader’s Raiders." By the second sum- mer two hundred students were selected from a list of 30,000 appli- cants inspiring Nader to form a permanent establishment. One Harvard professor was quoted by a reporter as saying, "I think one third of Harvard Law School applied." By the summer of 1970 Nader founded the Center for Responsive Law and Nader’s Raiders began turning out reports on health hazards caused by air pollution, lax response of the Food and Drug Administration over the food industry, and the effects of DDT spraying. One reason why the Nader reports were so effective was that mainstream journalism seemed locked in a legacy left over from the Eisenhower "silent" generation. Investigative reporting wasn’t practiced to any extent at most “Other press >>> FEATURES daily newspapers and few legislators cared to look at the performance of federal agencies from a _ citizen’s perspective. By providing names and detailed documentation the Nader study groups made for hot copy. The spectacle of greenhorn’ students providing example after example of government footdragging, special interest collusion, and _ corporate malfeasance made the reports com- pelling and intriguing. Nader had very little capital to pay for the growing groups. He paid them instead by giving them their own bylines, participating in their own press conferences, providing the student researchers opportunities to develop their own reputations and expertise. Mark Green, one of Nader’s first pro- tégés has remarked, "Ralph replicated himself through his own selflessness— he allowed new leaders to be born." Nader introduced the reports he sponsored as "exemplary acts of citi- zenship designed to inspire others to do the same." For a generation who consciously wanted their peers to care about who they were, to care about their country, and care about the world they lived in, Nader had provided a means through The Centre for Responsive Law. Although Ralph Nader was not the founder of con- sumer watchdog movements, he contributed greatly towards getting people involved, making people concerned, and he did something unique. While the majority of student activists were protesting the war in Vietnam, or fighting for ethnic civil rights, Nader had found a niche focusing on the subtle injustices woven into American economy and law. Some Canadian Democracy Watchdogs Within Canada, especially within the scope of the past few years, advocate groups for democracy and human rights have been recruiting in full force. Never in the history of the world has it been more crucial to protect the individual’s rights, to speak one’s beliefs, to make a stand and say what continued on page 20 Nee eee