Download or read book Democracy in New England A Community Politics Reader written by Jonathan L. Wharton and published by . This book was released on 2017-12-22 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy in New England: A Community Politics Reader analyzes the unique politics and history of the area and explores the political participation of its residents. Highlighting the politics of New Haven, Boston, and Providence, the book features both primary sources and works from the discipline of political science to underscore cultural, historical, and political dynamics. The first three chapters of the book provide a comprehensive overview of direct democracy and the New England creed, local power in early New England, and political participation in contemporary Vermont. Later chapters focus more directly on coalition building politics in Connecticut cities, economic development politics in New Haven, busing and education politics in Boston, and partisan politics in Providence. Developed in recognition of the region's reverence for state and local government and its rich history of self-governance and citizen political participation, Democracy in New England gives readers insight into the soul of our country's direct democracy. The book is well-suited to courses in state and local politics, comparative politics, and American history. Jonathan Wharton is assistant professor of political science and urban affairs at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Connecticut where he teaches courses in United States government, public policy, and state and local politics. Dr. Wharton's teaching and research interests include economic development, gentrification, public policy analysis, and political history. He is author of A Post-Racial Change is Gonna Come: Newark, Cory Booker, and The Transformation of Urban America.
Download or read book Democracy in New England State and Local Politics First Edition written by Jonathan Wharton and published by Cognella Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2017-12-22 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy in New England: A Community Politics Reader analyzes the unique politics and history of the area and explores the political participation of its residents. Highlighting the politics of New Haven, Boston, and Providence, the book features both primary sources and works from the discipline of political science to underscore cultural, historical, and political dynamics. The first three chapters of the book provide a comprehensive overview of direct democracy and the New England creed, local power in early New England, and political participation in contemporary Vermont. Later chapters focus more directly on coalition building politics in Connecticut cities, economic development politics in New Haven, busing and education politics in Boston, and partisan politics in Providence. Developed in recognition of the region's reverence for state and local government and its rich history of self-governance and citizen political participation, Democracy in New England gives readers insight into the soul of our country's direct democracy. The book is well-suited to courses in state and local politics, comparative politics, and American history.
Download or read book Democracy in New England written by Jonathan Wharton and published by . This book was released on 2017-12-22 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy in New England: A Community Politics Reader analyzes the unique politics and history of the area and explores the political participation of its residents. Highlighting the politics of New Haven, Boston, and Providence, the book features both primary sources and works from the discipline of political science to underscore cultural, historical, and political dynamics. The first three chapters of the book provide a comprehensive overview of direct democracy and the New England creed, local power in early New England, and political participation in contemporary Vermont. Later chapters focus more directly on coalition building politics in Connecticut cities, economic development politics in New Haven, busing and education politics in Boston, and partisan politics in Providence. Developed in recognition of the region's reverence for state and local government and its rich history of self-governance and citizen political participation, Democracy in New England gives readers insight into the soul of our country's direct democracy. The book is well-suited to courses in state and local politics, comparative politics, and American history. Jonathan Wharton is assistant professor of political science and urban affairs at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Connecticut where he teaches courses in United States government, public policy, and state and local politics. Dr. Wharton's teaching and research interests include economic development, gentrification, public policy analysis, and political history. He is author of A Post-Racial Change is Gonna Come: Newark, Cory Booker, and The Transformation of Urban America.
Download or read book Democracy in New England State and Local Politics Preliminary Edition written by Jonathan Wharton and published by Cognella Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2017-12-31 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Real Democracy written by Frank M. Bryan and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-03-15 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Relying on an astounding collection of more than three decades of firsthand research, Frank M. Bryan examines one of the purest forms of American democracy, the New England town meeting. At these meetings, usually held once a year, all eligible citizens of the town may become legislators; they meet in face-to-face assemblies, debate the issues on the agenda, and vote on them. And although these meetings are natural laboratories for democracy, very few scholars have systematically investigated them. A nationally recognized expert on this topic, Bryan has now done just that. Studying 1,500 town meetings in his home state of Vermont, he and his students recorded a staggering amount of data about them—238,603 acts of participation by 63,140 citizens in 210 different towns. Drawing on this evidence as well as on evocative "witness" accounts—from casual observers to no lesser a light than Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn—Bryan paints a vivid picture of how real democracy works. Among the many fascinating questions he explores: why attendance varies sharply with town size, how citizens resolve conflicts in open forums, and how men and women behave differently in town meetings. In the end, Bryan interprets this brand of local government to find evidence for its considerable staying power as the most authentic and meaningful form of direct democracy. Giving us a rare glimpse into how democracy works in the real world, Bryan presents here an unorthodox and definitive book on this most cherished of American institutions.
Download or read book New England Local Government written by Gary L. Rose and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Local government in the New England states has historically been regarded as a style of government that most closely embodies the spirit of American democracy. Although models of local government vary from one town to the next, the common thread which unites all New England towns is that the people are empowered to choose their own form of government, and in doing so control their own destiny. In this fresh and insightful book, Professor Gary L. Rose, a well known commentator on American politics and native New Englander, introduces readers to local government in Connecticut. Rose takes readers on a journey showcasing the origin of Connecticut towns, the different models of government in existence among the state?s 169 communities, the means by which towns and cities finance public services, the status of party politics in urban, suburban, and rural communities, the creative endeavors currently underway at the local level of government, and the serious challenges facing local media with respect to performing their ?watchdog? role over the affairs of local decision makers. Intended for students, political practitioners, and a general audience, Professor Rose?s book not only fills a void in the literature on local government, but will also serve to inspire those who want to make a positive difference in the political life of their local communities.0.
Download or read book The New England Town Meeting written by Joseph F. Zimmerman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1999-03-30 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking study, Zimmerman explores the town meeting form of government in all New England states. This comprehensive work relies heavily upon surveys of town officers and citizens, interviews, and mastery of the scattered writing on the subject. Zimmerman finds that the stereotypes of the New England open town meeting advanced by its critics are a serious distortion of reality. He shows that voter superintendence of town affairs has proven to be effective, and there is no empirical evidence that thousands of small towns and cities with elected councils are governed better. Whereas the relatively small voter attendance suggests that interest groups can control town meetings, their influence has been offset effectively by the development of town advisory committees, particularly the finance committee and the planning board, which are effective counterbalances to pressure groups. Zimmerman provides a new conception of town meeting democracy, positing that the meeting is a de facto representative legislative body with two safety valves—open access to all voters and the initiative to add articles to the warrant, and the calling of special meetings to reconsider decisions made at the preceding town meeting. And, as Zimmerman points out, a third safety valve—the protest referendum—can be adopted by a town meeting.
Download or read book Town Meeting written by Donald L. Robinson and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Jeffersonian Democracy in New England written by William Alexander Robinson and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The New England Town Meeting written by Joseph Francis Zimmerman and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Inventing Local Democracy written by Rebecca Abers and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers. This book was released on 2000 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abers (political science, Center for Public Policy Research, U. of Brasília, Brazil) provides a close study of innovative city government in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Led by the Workers' Party, the city implemented a participatory budget program in which residents meet in their neighborhoods to determine budget priorities. Taking place in a city long dominated by patronage politics and elite rule, the story is both a sociopolitical study of the impact that state- sponsored participatory forums can have on civil society and a contribution to the theory and practical possibilities of participatory democracy.--
Download or read book The Rise and Fall of Democracy in Early America 1630 1789 written by Joshua Miller and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rise and Fall of Democracy in Early America describes and explores the emergence of a directly democratic political culture in America, the Federalists' theoretical campaign against that culture, and the legacy of the struggle over democracy for politics today. The Rise and Fall of Democracy in Early America traces the rise of democracy in America beginning with the Puritans of New England; the radicalization during the eighteenth century of Puritan notions of community, autonomy, and participation; and the Antifederalist attempt to preserve a democratic political culture in the face of Federalist efforts to centralize power and distance it from the people by the passage of the 1787 Constitution. Despite its historical concerns, this book is not a history of institutions or a history of ideas. It is a work of political theory that explores certain early American texts and debates, and discusses the theoretical questions raised by those texts and debates, emphasizing those issues most relevant to democratic thought in our own time. Among the many insights into our democratic heritage that Joshua Miller affords us in his discussion of the Puritan theory of membership and the Antifederalist theory of autonomous communities is the hitherto obscured affinity between democracy and conservatism. Whereas many treatments of early American political thought make the debate over the ratification of the Constitution appear dry and abstract, this book shows the clash of political values and ideals that were at the heart of the struggle. It illustrates how the Federalists employed a democratic-sounding vocabulary to cloak their centralizing, elitist designs. Miller introduces readers to a political theory of direct democracy that is presented as an alternative to Marxism, liberalism, and mainstream conservatism. This new democratic theory based on an early American political tradition should serve as a stimulus for rethinking the directions we are taking in politics today.
Download or read book Slow Democracy written by Susan Clark and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reconnecting with the sources of decisions that affect us, and with the processes of democracy itself, is at the heart of 21st-century sustainable communities. Slow Democracy chronicles the ways in which ordinary people have mobilized to find local solutions to local problems. It invites us to bring the advantages of "slow" to our community decision making. Just as slow food encourages chefs and eaters to become more intimately involved with the production of local food, slow democracy encourages us to govern ourselves locally with processes that are inclusive, deliberative, and citizen powered. Susan Clark and Woden Teachout outline the qualities of real, local decision making and show us the range of ways that communities are breathing new life into participatory democracy around the country. We meet residents who seize back control of their municipal water systems from global corporations, parents who find unique solutions to seemingly divisive school-redistricting issues, and a host of other citizens across the nation who have designed local decision-making systems to solve the problems unique to their area in ways that work best for their communities. Though rooted in the direct participation that defined our nation's early days, slow democracy is not a romantic vision for reigniting the ways of old. Rather, the strategies outlined here are uniquely suited to 21st-century technologies and culture.If our future holds an increased focus on local food, local energy, and local economy, then surely we will need to improve our skills at local governance as well.
Download or read book The Logos Reader written by Stephen Eric Bronner and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Founded in 2002, Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture was established in response to the increasing erosion of a left political culture and the new possibilities for international political engagement and cooperation produced by the Internet. Many of the best known intellectual representatives of what might be termed a "rational radicalism" soon served as the core group for this new online journal that has reached about four million readers. The Logos Reader brings together the most influential and controversial work to appear in the journal. In its pages, writers of exceptional stature such as Stanley Aronowitz, Ulrich Beck, Drucilla Cornell, Fred Dallmayr, J?rgen Habermas, Douglas Kellner, and Eric Rouleau articulate liberal and socialist values even as they retain theoretical viewpoints influenced by critical theory. The contributors deal with some of the most pressing political issues of our age, including transnational developments, U.S. foreign policy, the Iraqi War, the plight of the Palestinians, and the domestic concerns currently dominating American politics. With themes that speak to the most pertinent and enduring issues of a post-9/11 culture, the essays in The Logos Reader represent the best of modern liberal thought and will influence contemporary political discourse.
Download or read book The Democracy Project written by David Graeber and published by Doubleday UK. This book was released on 2013 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the idea of democracy, its current state of crisis, and its potential as a tool for change, sharing historical perspectives on the effectiveness of democratic uprisings in various times and cultures.
Download or read book Democracy in Our America written by Paul W. Kahn and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-31 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of America’s most distinguished political theorists examines what happens when national politics enters a small New England town After the election of 2016 and, even more urgently, after the election of 2020, many citizens looked at the economic and cultural divisions that were causing deep disruptions in American politics and asked, “What is happening to us?” Paul W. Kahn explores these fundamental changes as they show themselves in a small New England town—his home of twenty-five years, Killingworth, Connecticut. His inquiry grounds a democratic theory that puts volunteering, not voting, at its center. Absent active participation, citizens lose the capacity for judgment that comes from working with others to solve real problems. Volunteering, however, is under existential threat today. Changes in civil society, commerce, employment, and public opinion formation have isolated families from each other and from their communities. Even middle-class families live under financial stress, uncertain of their children’s future, and without the support of civil society. Local media has disappeared. Residents do not have the time, information, or interest to volunteer. Under these conditions, national polarization enters local politics, which becomes yet another site for national conflict. To save our democracy, Kahn concludes, we need to find ways of matching opportunities for participation to the ways we live our lives today.
Download or read book The Decline and Rise of Democracy written by David Stasavage and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-02 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "One of the most important books on political regimes written in a generation."—Steven Levitsky, New York Times–bestselling author of How Democracies Die A new understanding of how and why early democracy took hold, how modern democracy evolved, and what this history teaches us about the future Historical accounts of democracy’s rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer—democratic practices were present in many places, at many other times, from the Americas before European conquest, to ancient Mesopotamia, to precolonial Africa. Delving into the prevalence of early democracy throughout the world, David Stasavage makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished—and when and why they declined—can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but also about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future. Drawing from examples spanning several millennia, Stasavage first considers why states developed either democratic or autocratic styles of governance and argues that early democracy tended to develop in small places with a weak state and, counterintuitively, simple technologies. When central state institutions (such as a tax bureaucracy) were absent—as in medieval Europe—rulers needed consent from their populace to govern. When central institutions were strong—as in China or the Middle East—consent was less necessary and autocracy more likely. He then explores the transition from early to modern democracy, which first took shape in England and then the United States, illustrating that modern democracy arose as an effort to combine popular control with a strong state over a large territory. Democracy has been an experiment that has unfolded over time and across the world—and its transformation is ongoing. Amidst rising democratic anxieties, The Decline and Rise of Democracy widens the historical lens on the growth of political institutions and offers surprising lessons for all who care about governance.
