‘No more smoke-filled rooms’

According to the Guardian at Davos:

Gordon Brown said today that the days of the "smoke-filled room" were
over and that politicians had to involve the public in decision-making
in order to win the arguments for free trade, globalisation and the
fight against terrorism.

I think some of the lower profile, but locally important, issues surrounding communities could be included on the list.

The Chancellor goes on to mention how campaigns like Make Poverty History demonstrate that citizens are "flexing their muscles".  The real litmus test of course is whether politicians listen to citizens when the campaign conflicts with their policies as opposed to coincide with it as with MPH.

Manic at Bloggerheads explores a different angle.