Download or read book Stealing Our Democracy written by Don Siegelman and published by NewSouth Books. This book was released on 2020-06-16 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a searing political memoir, former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman explodes the myth of an impartial U.S. justice system. He should know. Arguably the most successful and promising politician in modern Alabama history, his three-decade career in public service ran afoul of Republican opponents who used the federal judicial system to take him out of contention in Alabama and nationally. Siegelman ultimately was sentenced to 88 months in federal prison and served five years, with long stretches in solitary confinement during which he was a literal political prisoner, cut off from interviews and outside contact. Stealing Our Democracy reveals how Siegelman’s enemies — including politicized prosecutors and a corrupt judge — stripped him of his freedom, his career, and his law license, and deprived him of his family and friends. His is an intensely personal account of how our system can fail and be abused for political greed. And if it could happen to him, he writes, it can happen to any of us, particularly in an era when Donald Trump is abusing his power and using the Department of Justice as a political weapon to defend himself and to destroy those who oppose him. Siegelman draws on his experience as a public servant and an inmate to show why the nation’s prisons must be reformed along with our system of indictment, prosecution, and sentencing. Finally, Stealing Our Democracy offers a blueprint for voters in 2020 of what must be done to preserve democracy.

Download or read book The People Vs Democracy written by Yascha Mounk and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-05 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uiteenzetting over de opkomst van het populisme en het gevaar daarvan voor de democratie.

Download or read book Two Cheers for Politics written by Jedediah Purdy and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2022-08-30 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the country’s most astute legal scholars explains how American political culture disempowers ordinary citizens and makes the case for a reinvigorated democracy Americans across the political spectrum agree that our democracy is in crisis. We view our political opponents with disdain, if not terror, and an increasing number of us are willing to consider authoritarian alternatives. In Two Cheers for Politics, Jedediah Purdy argues that this heated political culture is a symptom not of too much democracy but too little. Today, the decisions that most affect our lives and our communities are often made outside the political realm entirely, as market ideology, constitutional law, and cultural norms effectively remove broad swaths of collective life from the table of collective decision. The result is a weakened and ineffective political system and an increasingly unequal and polarized society. If we wish to renew that society, we’ll need to claw back the ground that we’ve ceded to anti-politics and entrust one another with the power to shape our common life.

Download or read book Captured written by Sheldon Whitehouse and published by New Press, The. This book was released on 2017-02-21 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A U.S. senator, leading the fight against money in politics, chronicles the long shadow corporate power has cast over our democracy In Captured, U.S. Senator and former federal prosecutor Sheldon Whitehouse offers an eye-opening take on what corporate influence looks like today from the Senate Floor, adding a first-hand perspective to Jane Mayer’s Dark Money. Americans know something is wrong in their government. Senator Whitehouse combines history, legal scholarship, and personal experiences to provide the first hands-on, comprehensive explanation of what's gone wrong, exposing multiple avenues through which our government has been infiltrated and disabled by corporate powers. Captured reveals an original oversight by the Founders, and shows how and why corporate power has exploited that vulnerability: to strike fear in elected representatives who don’t “get right” by threatening million-dollar "dark money" election attacks (a threat more effective and less expensive than the actual attack); to stack the judiciary—even the Supreme Court—in "business-friendly" ways; to "capture” the administrative agencies meant to regulate corporate behavior; to undermine the civil jury, the Constitution's last bastion for ordinary citizens; and to create a corporate "alternate reality" on public health and safety issues like climate change. Captured shows that in this centuries-long struggle between corporate power and individual liberty, we can and must take our American government back into our own hands.

Download or read book Nation on the Take written by Wendell Potter and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American democracy has become coin operated. Special interest groups increasingly control every level of government. The necessity of raising huge sums of campaign cash has completely changed the character of politics and policy making, determining what elected representatives stand for and how their time is spent. The marriage of great wealth and intense political influence has rendered our country unable to address our most pressing problems, from runaway government spending to climate change to the wealth gap. It also defines our daily lives: from the cars we drive to the air we breathe to the debt we owe. In this powerful work of reportage, Wendell Potter and Nick Penniman, two vigilant watchdogs, expose legalized corruption and link it to the kitchen-table issues citizens face every day. Inciting our outrage, the authors then inspire us by introducing us to an army of reformers laying the groundwork for change, ready to be called into action. The battle plan for reform presented is practical, realistic, and concrete. No one--except some lobbyists and major political donors--likes business as usual, and this book aims to help forge a new army of reformers who are compelled by a patriotic duty to fight for a better democracy. An impassioned, infuriating, yet ultimately hopeful call to arms, Nation on the Take lays bare the reach of moneyed interests and charts a way forward, toward the recovery of America's original promise.

Download or read book United States Government Our Democracy Student Edition written by GLENCOE2016 and published by McGraw-Hill Education. This book was released on 2014-08-11 with total page 952 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Print Student Edition

Download or read book The Character of American Democracy written by Jill Long Thompson and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "We live in an age that demonstrates the powerful need for ethics in government. Democracy is a privilege that carries with it important responsibilities for the people and their representatives. As we look back on this era and determine the future of this nation, Dr. Long Thompson's book will be a resource for Americans who are seeking ways to secure our democracy and our future as a nation." Congressman John Lewis, Georgia's 5th District. Ethical leadership, steeped in integrity and fairness, matters. The future of our nation and our world depends upon the quality of America's character. In this uncompromising, absorbing look at our government and society today, Jill Long Thompson persuasively argues that we all have a meaningful role to play in shaping America's character and future. The citizenry, as well as their elected officials, are responsible for protecting fairness of participation and integrity in elections, as well as in the adoption and execution of laws. In this troubling time when the public is losing trust and confidence in our government, Jill Long Thompson shows us a bipartisan way forward.

Download or read book Citizens Uniting to Restore Our Democracy written by Daniel Kemmis and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2020-08-13 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The election of Donald Trump in 2016 shocked the American political system, and the aftershocks have widened the nation’s partisan divide and magnified deep tensions in the public sphere. At a time when our political focus so often shrinks to the immediacy of the latest jolt, this book puts these alarming events in a much broader—and more manageable—context. Even as we become more polarized along partisan and ideological lines, author Daniel Kemmis reminds us that authentic conservatism and progressivism are both deeply rooted in genuine human concerns and in the shared history of our democratic republic. Citizens Uniting to Restore Our Democracy is at once a cogent analysis of what ails our body politic and a wide-ranging, deeply informed prescription for healing our wounded democracy. The Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission amplified the role of big money in American politics. But, as Kemmis notes, the threats to our democracy long preceded Citizens United. While the influence of big money and relentless partisanship can make ordinary citizens feel powerless in a chaotic political culture, Citizens Uniting to Restore Our Democracy offers a stirring reassertion of the power Americans possess as collaborative problem-solvers—namely, the very homegrown self-governing skills needed to rebuild our democracy. Drawing on several decades of public service—as a politician, activist, and scholar, one of Utne Reader’s “100 Visionaries Changing the World”—Kemmis highlights the transformative potential latent in the everyday practice of engaged citizenship. Leveraged by new mechanisms, such as an effective democratic lobby of the kind his book advocates, that reservoir of active, hands-on citizenship must be mobilized into a twenty-first-century version of the Progressive movement, providing both necessary and sufficient conditions for the renewal of the nation’s democratic institutions.

Download or read book Making Our Democracy Work written by Stephen Breyer and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-09-13 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charged with the responsibility of interpreting the Constitution, the Supreme Court has the awesome power to strike down laws enacted by our elected representatives. Why does the public accept the Court’s decisions as legitimate and follow them, even when those decisions are highly unpopular? What must the Court do to maintain the public’s faith? How can it help make our democracy work? In this groundbreaking book, Justice Stephen Breyer tackles these questions and more, offering an original approach to interpreting the Constitution that judges, lawyers, and scholars will look to for many years to come.

Download or read book New Democracy written by William J. Novak and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2022-03-29 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The activist state of the New Deal started forming decades before the FDR administration, demonstrating the deep roots of energetic government in America. In the period between the Civil War and the New Deal, American governance was transformed, with momentous implications for social and economic life. A series of legal reforms gradually brought an end to nineteenth-century traditions of local self-government and associative citizenship, replacing them with positive statecraft: governmental activism intended to change how Americans lived and worked through legislation, regulation, and public administration. The last time American public life had been so thoroughly altered was in the late eighteenth century, at the founding and in the years immediately following. William J. Novak shows how Americans translated new conceptions of citizenship, social welfare, and economic democracy into demands for law and policy that delivered public services and vindicated peopleÕs rights. Over the course of decades, Americans progressively discarded earlier understandings of the reach and responsibilities of government and embraced the idea that legislators and administrators in Washington could tackle economic regulation and social-welfare problems. As citizens witnessed the successes of an energetic, interventionist state, they demanded more of the same, calling on politicians and civil servants to address unfair competition and labor exploitation, form public utilities, and reform police power. Arguing against the myth that America was a weak state until the New Deal, New Democracy traces a steadily aggrandizing authority well before the Roosevelt years. The United States was flexing power domestically and intervening on behalf of redistributive goals for far longer than is commonly recognized, putting the lie to libertarian claims that the New Deal was an aberration in American history.

Download or read book They Don t Represent Us written by Lawrence Lessig and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An impassioned call to all Americans to fight for equal representation.” — Kirkus Reviews “This bracing report on the state of American politics offers valuable insights for the 2020 elections.” — Publishers Weekly “A thoughtful, illuminating, nonpartisan, and pragmatic analysis of the changes needed to restore power to the public… In this bold and compelling book, Lessig both scrutinizes the laws and forces that led us to this point and guides us towards visionary changes that can reset and restore our faith in our democracy. Given the complexities of the tasks at hand, this a must-read and a much-needed wake up call.” — Booklist “Lessig tells it with skill, citing a plethora of studies and historical examples to make a persuasive case about the unrepresentativeness of America’s political institutions.” — New York Time Book Review “Lessig paints a searing portrait of a defective political system that is nonetheless full of hope, community spirit, self-empowered individuals, and ways to fix what is broken.” — Foreign Affairs “Lessig is right that a representative American democracy, desirable in itself, would also solve most of the problems that now seem insoluble. It is hard to imagine a more thoughtful and appealing companion in the hard work to move our system to where it ought to be: in our own hands.” — Timothy Snyder, bestselling author of On Tyranny and The Road to Unfreedom “Lessig, a leading proponent of campaign finance reform, now aims at something even bigger: fixing our broken system of representative democracy. This book is brimming with promising and provocative proposals to fix campaign finance, gerrymandering, the electoral college, the filibuster, and the mind-numbing effects of cable news and social media. It is a bold and bracing repair manual for government of, by, and for the people.” — Michael J. Sandel, bestselling author of What Money Can’t Buy “Lessig is a modern-day Paul Revere with a warning we must heed: Our representative democracy no longer represents us. The change we need is deep and serious. And it can’t be fixed with by one election, party, or politician. This urgent book offers not only a clear-eyed explanation of the forces that broke our politics, but a thoughtful and, yes, patriotic vision of how we create a government that’s truly by and for the people. We ignore his alarm at our own peril.” — David Daley, bestselling author of Ratf**ked and Unrigged “Everything Lessig writes should be carefully read. Read it, consider it, and most important, act on it. Our democracy is at stake.” — Nancy MacLean, bestselling author of Democracy in Chains “The American experiment in representative government is on life support. In his brilliant book, Lessig provides the medical record and a recommended course of care to save the patient. Every American should read it ... stat!” — Roger McNamee bestselling author of Zucked “Full of original, provocative insights and surprising stories, this book is for all who seek to create effective democracy in America.” — Frances Moore Lappé, bestselling author of Diet for a Small Planet and coauthor with Adam Eichen of Daring Democracy “Lessig proposes the making of a nonpartisan politics to breathe life into the corpse of America’s dysfunctional democracy. He does so with fierce and plainspoken clarity. A challenging work of the political imagination, unsweetened with pious cant.” — Lewis H. Lapham, editor and founder of Lapham’s Quarterly “Lessig is the thinking man’s popular reformer and this book is a powerful, patriotic and above all useful guide to the fixes for American representative democracy. Agree or disagree, it every citizen should read this book.” — Tim Wu, bestselling author of The Curse of Bigness “Lessig has long been the leading voice on how corruption undermines American democracy. In this book, he trains his trademark wit and incisiveness on an even bigger problem: Our political institutions, he shows, are deeply unrepresentative. Thankfully, Lessig has an original plan for how to build on the principles of the Founding Fathers to make our institutions serve all Americans.” — Yascha Mounk, author of The People vs. Democracy “American democracy is buckling under the weight of the public’s deep cynicism. Lessig’s book brings clarity to the many factors feeding this civic deterioration, from our warped campaign finance system to the increasingly balkanized media to the pernicious power of our ‘vetocracy.’ Charting a new course that can revitalize our Republic will demand a reckoning with these deep-seated challenges. This book is a clarion call to do just that.” — Representative John P. Sarbanes “This book is a tour de force by one of America’s most interesting thinkers about democracy. Lessig finds democratic sclerosis not only in the institutions and arrangements of government, but also among we the people. Although Lessig considers familiar policy proposals such as campaign finance reform and breaking up social media monopolies, conventional reforms are far from enough to solve the problem of a democracy under extreme stress. He offers proposals aimed at getting us out of our silos, educated, organized, and deliberating toward a more perfect union.” — Richard L. Hasen, author of Election Meltdown “This book brilliantly diagnoses some of the fundamental ailments of American democracy. Lessig provides an original and illuminating analysis of how we have been led astray by our reliance on public opinion polling in a fractured media and social media landscape. This book is a must-read for anyone trying to understand — and indeed hoping to reclaim — our democracy.” — Deb Roy, Professor of Media Arts & Sciences, MIT and Co-founder & Executive Chairman, Cortico “In classic Lessig fashion, this book connects one of society’s biggest challenges—the impact of technology on our society and democracy—to the evolution of our constitution to show how we’ve lost our voice in our system of government. But as the reader descends into a spiral of despair, he pulls them up with the hope of potential interventions that could successfully enact positive change.” — Joi Ito, Director, MIT Media Lab “Lessig has long been a leader in the fight to save our democracy. In this book, Larry again brings his characteristic, inspirational passion and insight to the most pressing challenge of our time—the fate of our Republic. His new insights into “unrepresentativeness” are a distinctive contribution to the national discussion—in particular, his contention that the problem is not just “they” but also “us”. If you’re concerned about our democracy, it’s a proverbial must-read. And along with his deep thinking, Larry brings a keen sense of humor and awareness of the absurd that made us wryly chuckle out loud.” — Katherine M. Gehl and Michael E. Porter, authors of Why Competition in the Politics Industry Is Failing America: A strategy for reinvigorating our democracy. “Lessig eloquently advances his diagnosis of our democratic condition. He then helps us understand how remedies might be possible. A book of lasting importance.” — James Fishkin, Stanford University professor and author of Democracy When the People Are Thinking “A sweeping analysis by one of America’s most astute and passionate political voices. Lessig shows how America suffers both from a dysfunctional government and from the deficiencies of an increasingly polarized and poorly-informed public. More importantly, he points us toward the reforms we need to repair our representative democracy by making elected officials more responsive to the public and making the public more worthy of responding to. A compelling new contribution to the most important discussion of our time.” — Martin Gilens, Professor of Public Policy, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs “Hard-hitting analysis… Lessig persuasively supports his argument that the U.S. political system is unrepresentative.” — EMissourian.com

Download or read book Priests of Our Democracy written by Marjorie Heins and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2013-02-04 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early 1950s, New York City’s teachers and professors became the targets of massive investigations into their political beliefs and associations. Those who refused to cooperate in the questioning were fired. Some had undoubtedly been communists, and the Communist Party-USA certainly made its share of mistakes, but there was never evidence that the accused teachers had abused their trust. Some were among the most brilliant, popular, and dedicated educators in the city. Priests of Our Democracy tells of the teachers and professors who resisted the witch hunt, those who collaborated, and those whose battles led to landmark Supreme Court decisions. It traces the political fortunes of academic freedom beginning in the late 19th century, both on campus and in the courts. Combining political and legal history with wrenching personal stories, the book details how the anti-communist excesses of the 1950s inspired the Supreme Court to recognize the vital role of teachers and professors in American democracy. The crushing of dissent in the 1950s impoverished political discourse in ways that are still being felt, and First Amendment academic freedom, a product of that period, is in peril today. In compelling terms, this book shows why the issue should matter to every American.

Download or read book You Call This Democracy written by Elizabeth Rusch and published by HMH Books For Young Readers. This book was released on 2020 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America is the greatest democracy in the world . . . isn't it? Author Elizabeth Rusch examines some of the more problematic aspects of our government but, more importantly, offers ways for young people to fix them. The political landscape has never been so tumultuous: issues with the electoral college, gerrymandering, voter suppression, and a lack of representation in the polls and in our leadership have led to Americans of all ages asking, How did we get here? The power to change lies with the citizens of this great country--especially teens Rather than pointing fingers at people and political parties, You Call This Democracy? looks at flaws in the system--and offers a real way out of the mess we are in. Each chapter breaks down a different problem plaguing American democracy, exploring how it's undemocratic, offering possible solutions (with examples of real-life teens who have already started working toward them), and suggesting ways to effect change--starting NOW

Download or read book Corporations and American Democracy written by Naomi R. Lamoreaux and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-08 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Citizens United and other high-profile cases have sparked passionate disagreement about the proper role of corporations in American democracy. Partisans on both sides have made bold claims, often with little basis in historical facts. Bringing together leading scholars of history, law, and political science, Corporations and American Democracy provides the historical and intellectual grounding necessary to put today’s corporate policy debates in proper context. From the nation’s founding to the present, Americans have regarded corporations with ambivalence—embracing their potential to revolutionize economic life and yet remaining wary of their capacity to undermine democratic institutions. Although corporations were originally created to give businesses and other associations special legal rights and privileges, historically they were denied many of the constitutional protections afforded flesh-and-blood citizens. This comprehensive volume covers a range of topics, including the origins of corporations in English and American law, the historical shift from special charters to general incorporation, the increased variety of corporations that this shift made possible, and the roots of modern corporate regulation in the Progressive Era and New Deal. It also covers the evolution of judicial views of corporate rights, particularly since corporations have become the form of choice for an increasing variety of nonbusiness organizations, including political advocacy groups. Ironically, in today’s global economy the decline of large, vertically integrated corporations—the type of corporation that past reform movements fought so hard to regulate—poses some of the newest challenges to effective government oversight of the economy.

Download or read book Democracy Unchained written by David Orr and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stellar group of America's leading political thinkers explore how to reboot our democracy The presidential election of 2016 highlighted some long-standing flaws in American democracy and added a few new ones. Across the political spectrum, most Americans do not believe that democracy is delivering on its promises of fairness, justice, shared prosperity, or security in a changing world. The nation cannot even begin to address climate change and economic justice if it remains paralyzed by political gridlock. Democracy Unchained is about making American democracy work to solve problems that have long impaired our system of governance. The book is the collective work of thirty of the most perceptive writers, practitioners, scientists, educators, and journalists writing today, who are committed to moving the political conversation from the present anger and angst to the positive and constructive change necessary to achieve the full promise of a durable democracy that works for everyone and protects our common future. Including essays by Yasha Mounk on populism, Chisun Lee on money and politics, Ras Baraka on building democracy from the ground up, and Bill McKibben on climate, Democracy Unchained is the articulation of faith in democracy and will be required reading for all who are working to make democracy a reality. Table of Contents Foreword Introduction David W. Orr Part I. The Crisis of Democracy Populism and Democracy Yascha Mounk Reconstructing Our Constitutional Democracy K. Sabeel Rahman Restoring Healthy Party Competition Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson When Democracy Becomes Something Else: The Problem of Elections and What to Do About It Andrew Gumbel The Best Answer to Money in Politics After Citizens United: Public Campaign Financing in the Empire State and Beyond Chisun Lee Remaking the Presidency After Trump Jeremi Suri The Problem of Presidentialism Stephen Skowronek Part II. Foundations of Democracy Renewing the American Democratic Faith Steven C. Rockefeller American Land, American Democracy Eric Freyfogle Race and Democracy: The Kennedys, Obama, Trump, and Us Michael Eric Dyson Liberty and Justice for All: Latina Activist Efforts to Strengthen Democracy in 2018 Maria Hinojosa What Black Women Teach Us About Democracy Andra Gillespie and Nadia E. Brown Engines of Democracy: Racial Justice and Cultural Power Rashad Robinson Civic and Environmental Education: Protecting the Planet and Our Democracy Judy Braus The Supreme Court's Legitimacy Crisis and Constitutional Democracy’s Future Dawn Johnsen Part III. Policy Challenges Can Democracy Survive the Internet? David Hickton The New New Deal: How to Reregulate Capitalism Robert Kuttner First Understand Why They're Winning: How to Save Democracy from the Anti-Immigrant Far Right Sasha Polakow-Suransky No Time Left: How the System Is Failing to Address Our Ultimate Crisis Bill McKibben Powering Democracy Through Clean Energy Denise G. Fairchild The Long Crisis: American Foreign Policy Before and After Trump Jessica Tuchman Mathews Part IV. Who Acts, and How? The Case for Strong Government William S. Becker The States Nick Rathod Democracy in a Struggling Swing State Amy Hanauer Can Independent Voters Save American Democracy? Why 42 Percent of American Voters Are Independent and How They Can Transform Our Political System Jaqueline Salit and Thom Reilly Philanthropy and Democracy Stephen B. Heintz Keeping the Republic Dan Moulthrop The Future of Democracy Mayor Ras Baraka Building a University Where All People Matter Michael M. Crow, William B. Dabars, and Derrick M. Anderson Biophilia and Direct Democracy Timothy Beatley Purpose-Driven Capitalism Mindy Lubber Restoring Democracy: Nature's Trust, Human Survival, and Constitutional Fiduciary Governance 397 Mary Christina Wood Conclusion Ganesh Sitaraman

Download or read book One Person No Vote written by Carol Anderson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As featured in the documentary All In: The Fight for Democracy Finalist for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction Longlisted for the National Book Award in Nonfiction Named one of the Best Books of the Year by: Washington Post * Boston Globe * NPR* Bustle * BookRiot * New York Public Library From the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of White Rage, the startling--and timely--history of voter suppression in America, with a foreword by Senator Dick Durbin. In her New York Times bestseller White Rage, Carol Anderson laid bare an insidious history of policies that have systematically impeded black progress in America, from 1865 to our combustible present. With One Person, No Vote, she chronicles a related history: the rollbacks to African American participation in the vote since the 2013 Supreme Court decision that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Known as the Shelby ruling, this decision effectively allowed districts with a demonstrated history of racial discrimination to change voting requirements without approval from the Department of Justice. Focusing on the aftermath of Shelby, Anderson follows the astonishing story of government-dictated racial discrimination unfolding before our very eyes as more and more states adopt voter suppression laws. In gripping, enlightening detail she explains how voter suppression works, from photo ID requirements to gerrymandering to poll closures. And with vivid characters, she explores the resistance: the organizing, activism, and court battles to restore the basic right to vote to all Americans.

Download or read book After Democracy written by Zizi Papacharissi and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do ordinary citizens really want from their governments? Democracy has long been considered an ideal state of governance. What if it’s not? Perhaps it is not the end goal but, rather, a transition stage to something better. Drawing on original interviews conducted with citizens of more than thirty countries, Zizi Papacharissi explores what democracy is, what it means to be a citizen, and what can be done to enhance governance. As she probes the ways governments can better serve their citizens and evolve in positive ways, Papacharissi gives a voice to everyday people, whose ideas and experiences of capitalism, media, and education can help shape future governing practices. This book expands on the well-known difficulties of realizing the intimacy of democracy in a global world—the “democratic paradox”—and presents a concrete vision of how communications technologies can be harnessed to implement representative equality, information equality, and civic literacy.