Local democracy · Sydney
Everyone wants the street fixed.
Nobody wants to run a campaign.
demokratia does the organising. Your street works out what it actually wants — in the open, disagreements included — and what comes out the other end is something a council can act on. Nobody has to door-knock the whole street, or become the local campaigner, to get there.
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Easier to park in our own street, and permits that work on weekends. Count me in.
Supports · House 8 -
How does the garbage truck turn around? Genuine question before I decide.
Not sure · House 15 -
Against anything that looks like a closure. Slower traffic, fine.
Against · House 23
Example responses. A street rarely agrees — it can still arrive somewhere.
What it does
Most neighbourhoods are loud in private and silent where it counts.
The conversation about your street happens in group chats, at the school gate, over the fence — and then stops. What reaches the council is one determined person, or nobody. demokratia closes that gap: it gives a street one place to think out loud, and one clear thing to hand over at the end.
Out in the open
Responses are visible to the street as they come in. Nobody has to take anyone's word for what the neighbours think.
Counted fairly
Every household gets one say, whether they've lived there thirty years or three months. The loudest voice doesn't win by volume.
Disagreement survives
Concerns and questions travel with the proposal instead of being edited out. A proposal that hides its objections doesn't survive contact with a council.
How it works
Four steps, start to finish.
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01
A neighbour starts it
Someone puts a proposal to their own street — usually on paper, in letterboxes, with a link. Not a campaign group, not a consultant. A resident with an address on the street.
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02
The street responds
Support, not sure, or against — one response per household, plus anything you want to say in your own words. Two minutes is enough.
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03
The picture builds in public
Everyone sees the tally and the comments as they arrive, including the ones that push back. Questions get answered by neighbours who know the street.
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04
It goes to the decision-maker
A small committee of residents takes the proposal to council with the numbers and the objections attached. One clear, collective voice instead of forty-six separate ones.
Where it's running
One street at a time, starting in the Inner West.
demokratia is early. Rather than launch everywhere and mean nothing anywhere, we're working street by street with the residents who started each conversation.
Your details
What happens to what you write.
Participating in something about your own home is a small act of trust. Here's exactly what you're agreeing to.
- Who sees my response? Your street. Where you stand is only ever shown as part of a total, never on its own. If you write a comment you choose whether it carries your first name and house number, or simply says “a resident”. Your house number is always recorded privately, so each household counts once.
- Do I have to sign up? No. There's no account, no password and no app. You open the link, respond, and you're done.
- Is my data sold or shared? No. Nothing is sold, passed to third parties, or used for advertising. Your response is used to shape the proposal for your street and nothing else.
- Does this go to the council? Not automatically. Nothing is sent to a council unless the street decides to make a submission — and if it gets that far, we'll come back and ask first. You can be counted in the numbers without being quoted.
- Are you the council? No. demokratia is independent of Inner West Council and every other council. We're not a developer, a political party, or a lobby group — a new local initiative, started in Balmain, currently running its first street.
- What if I disagree with the proposal? Say so. Disagreement is recorded as carefully as support and reported honestly. A street proposal that only shows the people who agreed isn't worth taking to a council.
- Can I change my mind? Yes. Reopen the link and change your response any time before the closing date.
What we're building
The parts still under construction.
demokratia is a working prototype, not a finished product. These are the pieces we're building next, in the order we think they matter.
The record of your street
Every development application, tree removal and approval on your street, mapped and searchable. Moore Street already has 111 on file, the earliest lodged in April 2000.
Plain-language council process
Most people give up not because they're outvoted but because they can't find the form. We're building guidance that tells you which door to knock on and what happens after.
Pasquino
An assistant that helps a street draft, lodge and follow up its proposal — the tedious half of civic life, done for you rather than to you.
The name
Rule by the people, and a statue covered in complaints.
Demokratia is the ancient Greek word for democracy — dēmos, the people, and kratos, power. In Athens it meant citizens taking part directly, in person, in the decisions that governed them.
The statue is Pasquino: a battered Hellenistic torso standing in a small square off Piazza Navona in Rome. From 1501, Romans with no safe way to criticise popes and cardinals began pinning anonymous verses to it overnight. The authorities kept removing them. The notes kept coming back. It became the first of Rome's talking statues, and the word pasquinade entered the language.
Both ideas are the same idea. People with something to say, and somewhere to put it where it can't be quietly filed away.
Who's behind it
A small independent project, based in Sydney's Inner West.
demokratia is built by a founder who lives here, working directly with the residents who start each street conversation. It isn't funded by a council, a developer or a political party.
General enquiries
Starting something on your street
Tell us the street and what you're trying to change. Email us.
Councils and organisations
If you'd rather see what residents think before it reaches a formal submission, we should talk.