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 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 Hall Meetings and the Death of Deliberation written by Jonathan Beecher Field and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2019-09-17 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tracing the erosion of democratic norms in the US and the conditions that make it possible Jonathan Beecher Field tracks the permutations of the town hall meeting from its original context as a form of democratic community governance in New England into a format for presidential debates and a staple of corporate governance. In its contemporary iteration, the town hall meeting models the aesthetic of the former but replaces actual democratic deliberation with a spectacle that involves no immediate electoral stakes or functions as a glorified press conference. Urgently, Field notes that though this evolution might be apparent, evidence suggests many US citizens don’t care to differentiate. Forerunners: Ideas First Short books of thought-in-process scholarship, where intense analysis, questioning, and speculation take the lead

Download or read book Representative Town Meeting Government in Massachusetts written by Elwyn E. Mariner and published by . This book was released on 1935 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Local Self government written by Alfred Dupont Chandler and published by . This book was released on 1908 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Report of the Town s Committee on the Subject of City Government written by Salem (Mass.). Committee on Adoption of a City Form of Government and published by . This book was released on 1836 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Town Meeting written by Austin De Wolf and published by . This book was released on 1890 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Contemporary Town Meeting Government in Massachusetts written by John Fairfield Sly and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Genesis of the Massachusetts Town and the Development of Town Meeting Government written by Charles Francis Adams and published by . This book was released on 1892 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Guide for Establishing a Representative Town Meeting written by University of Massachusetts (Amherst campus). Bureau of Government Research and published by . This book was released on 1957 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book New England Town Meeting written by John Gould and published by . This book was released on 1940 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Town Meeting written by Donald L. Robinson and published by Univ of Massachusetts Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the history and practice of an uncommon but enduring form of American self-government

Download or read book Limited Town Meetings with a General Legislative Bill Therefor written by Alfred Dupont Chandler and published by . This book was released on 1904 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Limited Town Meetings written by Alfred Dupont Chandler and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Representative Town Meeting in Massachusetts written by Arthur Lord and published by . This book was released on 1919 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Massachusetts Town Meeting written by Joseph Francis Zimmerman and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Town Meeting Government written by Joseph Francis Zimmerman and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: