Debating Integrity Idol Liberia with the Street Parliaments

By: Beth Goldberg, Resident Summer Fellow at Accountability Lab Liberia  In Buchanan, Liberia, we sat circled around glasses of hot, milky tea in an open-air tea shop, far from a traditional parliament. The 20 members of the “street parliament” opened the meeting with a call and response chant, melding the disparate group of men into one voice comprising elders, students, local representatives, mechanics, and everyone in between. These men gather daily for the self-described purpose of critiquing leaders and debating hard questions. Such forums hearken back to early Athenian democracy, where citizens (men) met in public squares to engage lawmakers directly [...]