Lately it seems that politicians have made increasing use of the phrase “home rule.” The rash of rhetoric, which includes President Nixon’s reorganization plan to move government closer to the people, brings to mind a recent effort by a group of Port Washington, New York, residents, myself included, who went before their town board to plead for a traffic light.

Presumably, the installation of a traffic light, on a street between a library and a school, would present an opportunity for participatory democracy in its simplest form. But a closer look reveals the contradiction that goes under the misnomer…