I recently wrote and posted a complete article on Wikipedia describing Venezuelan Communal Councils. This new model of community based deliberative and participatory democracy is being intensively promoted accross Venezuela as the base of popular power in their effort towards demonstrating a new kind of "21st Century Socialism".
In April 2006 the Venezuelan government passed The Law of Communal Councils (consejo comunales) which empowers citizens to assemble, deliberate and vote on the creation of neighbourhood development plans and to elect local spokespersons to oversee their implementation.Meetings regularly include 50 to 150 citizens and are often convened on a weekly basis.
Read the full article at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_Communal_Councils
Also special thanks to Josh Lerner for his research and contributions.
I'll be inviting others to help revise the article and will add details as learn more from my research here in Cumanà, Venezuela.