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 2021-03 with total page 128 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.
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 The Government of the New England States written by Wilson Ryder Butler and published by . This book was released on 1905 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Reforming People written by David D. Hall and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this revelatory account of the people who founded the New England colonies, historian David D. Hall compares the reforms they enacted with those attempted in England during the period of the English Revolution. Bringing with them a deep fear of arbitrary, unlimited authority, these settlers based their churches on the participation of laypeople and insisted on "consent" as a premise of all civil governance. Puritans also transformed civil and criminal law and the workings of courts with the intention of establishing equity. In this political and social history of the five New England colonies, Hall provides a masterful re-evaluation of the earliest moments of New England's history, revealing the colonists to be the most effective and daring reformers of their day.
Download or read book Four Lost Legacies of the Early New England Civil Polity I The Old Colony Referendum written by Leonard Woolsey Bacon and published by . This book was released on 1906 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Privacy in Colonial New England written by David H. Flaherty and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 1972 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Dominion of New England written by Viola Florence Barnes and published by . This book was released on 1923 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The New England Clergy and the American Revolution written by Alice Mary Baldwin and published by . This book was released on 1928 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Shaping a Nation written by Gary L. Rose and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interprets the Supreme Court cases that have played a unique role in changing American law, politics and history. This title includes twenty-five cases that are preceded by a treatment of the historical, political and economic context during which they are decided.
Download or read book Local Government in Early America written by Brian P. Janiskee and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2010 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Local Government in Early America, Brian P. Janiskee examines the origins of the "town hall meeting" and other iconic political institutions, whose origins lie in our colonial heritage. This work offers an overview of the structure of local politics in the colonial era, a detailed examination of the thoughts of key founders--such as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson--on local politics, and some thoughts on the continued role of local institutions as vital elements of the American political system.
Download or read book Puritan Village written by Sumner Chilton Powell and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-12 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulitzer Prize Winner: “A meticulous and remarkably detailed account of the early government and social organization of the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts.” —Time In addition to drawing on local records from Sudbury, Massachusetts, the author of this classic work, which won the Pulitzer Prize in History, traced the town’s early families back to England to create an outstanding portrait of a colonial settlement in the seventeenth century. He looks at the various individuals who formed this new society; how institutions and government took shape; what changed—or didn’t—in the movement from the Old World to the New; and how those from different local cultures adjusted, adapted, competed, and cooperated to plant the seeds of what would become, in the century to follow, a commonwealth of the United States of America. “An important and interesting book . . . to the student of institutions, even to the sociologist, as well as to the historian.” —The New England Quarterly
Download or read book The History of New England Revolutionary New England 1691 1776 written by James Truslow Adams and published by . This book was released on 1923 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Adjustment to Empire written by Richard R. Johnson and published by [New Brunswick, N.J.] : Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 1981 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Godly Republicanism written by Michael P. Winship and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-16 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Puritans did not find a life free from tyranny in the new world—they created it there. Massachusetts emerged a republic as they hammered out a vision of popular participation and limited government in church and state, spurred by Plymouth pilgrims. Godly Republicanism underscores how pathbreaking yet rooted in puritanism’s history the project was.
Download or read book The Government of Sir Edmund Andros Over New England in 1688 and 1689 written by John Romeyn Brodhead and published by . This book was released on 1867 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
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.
