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Interviews | November 3, 2009

Sheila A.: IMG On Storytelling: The Powells.com Interview with Donald Miller

2 comments By Sheila A.

donaldmillerDonald Miller is a Christian writer, but the question that Miller asks with his latest memoir, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, is applicable to... Continue »
  1. $13.99 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life

    Donald Miller
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Other titles in the American Politics and Political Economy series:

  1. Defining the National Interest: Conflict and Change in American Foreign Policy
  2. Deliberative Choices: Debating Public Policy in Congress
  3. Deliberative Choices: Debating Public Policy in Congress
  4. Divided by Color: Racial Politics and Democratic Ideals
  5. For the Many or the Few: The Initiative, Public Policy, and American Democracy
  6. For the Many or the Few: The Initiative, Public Policy, and American Democracy
  7. Foreign Policy Disconnect (06 Edition)
  8. Policy Dynamics
  9. Political Life of Medicare (03 Edition)
  10. Race, Redistricting, and Representation: The Unintended Consequences of Black Majority Districts
  11. Rational Lives: Norms and Values in Politics and Society
  12. Real Democracy: The New England Town Meeting and How It Works
  13. Roots of Reform
  14. Rules and Restraint: Government Spending and the Design of Institutions
  15. Rules and Restraint: Government Spending and the Design of Institutions
  16. The Foreign Policy Disconnect: What Americans Want from Our Leaders But Don't Get
  17. The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring about Social Change?
  18. The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring about Social Change? Second Edition
  19. The Myth of Democratic Failure: Why Political Institutions Are Efficient
  20. The Political Life of Medicare
  21. The Two Reconstructions: The Struggle for Black Enfranchisement
  22. Why Congressional Reforms Fail: Reelection and the House Committee System
  23. Why Congressional Reforms Fail: Reelection and the House Committee System

Real Democracy: The New England Town Meeting and How It Works (American Politics and Political Economy)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

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 them238,603 acts of participation by 63,140 citizens in 210 different towns. Drawing on this evidence as well as on evocative "witness" accountsfrom casual observers to no lesser a light than Aleksandr SolzhenitsynBryan 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.

Review:

"Simultaneously nostalgic and up-to-the-minute. Bryans book arrives as interest in local civic capital and deliberate democracy-as contrasted with the old-fashioned adversarial style-is surging."-Christopher Shea, Boston Globe

Review:

"[Bryan] writes tellingly and thoroughly about Vermonts 210 annual town meetings over three decades . . . Bryan employs many of the sophisticated methodologies of political science to demonstrate that the New England town meeting is not merely a traditional method by which early Americans governed themselves. It still works well. . . . Obviously, New England cant be transferred to Iraq and Afghanistan, but its lessons are still relevant."-Robert I. Rothberg, Christian Science Monitor

Review:

"And now the irrepressible Bryan has made a major contribution to his field (and his country, which is Vermont) with Real Democracy, his magnum opus, the most searching and sympathetic book ever written about the town meeting democracy of New England. The book is a veritable four-leaf clover of academia: a witty work of political science written from a defiantly rural populist point of view. If the Green Mountains had a face, it would be Frank Bryan. With Real Democracy, he has given his state, and us outlanders as well, the most detailed and affectionate portrait of a town meeting, which is, as Bryan says, where you learn to be a good citizen."-Bill Kauffman, American Conservative

Review:

"Simultaneously nostalgic and up-to-the-minute. Bryans book arrives as interest in local civic capital and deliberate democracy-as contrasted with the old-fashioned adversarial style-is surging."-Christopher Shea, Boston Globe

(Christopher Shea, Boston Globe)

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About the Author

Frank M. Bryan is a professor of political science at the University of Vermont. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of eleven books, including Politics in the Rural States and The Vermont Papers: Recreating Democracy on a Human Scale as well as several books of Yankee humor such as the bestseller Real Vermonters Don't Milk Goats.
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Table of Contents

Preface: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Democrat

1. Introduction: The Methodology of Starting from Scratch

2. Town Meeting: An American Conversation

3. Democracy as Public Presence: Walking the Bounds

4. Attendance: The Architecture of Governance

5. Attendance: The Context of Community

6. Democracy as Public Talk: Walking the Bounds

7. Democracy as Public Talk: Exploring the Contexts

8. The Question of Equality: Women's Presence

9. The Question of Equality: Women's Participation

10. If You Build It, Let Them Play

11. The Best Democracy, the Worst Democracy

12. Conclusion: A Lovers' Quarrel

Index

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780226077963
Subtitle:
The New England Town Meeting and How It Works
Publisher:
University Of Chicago Press
Author:
Bryan, Frank M.
Subject:
Practical Politics
Subject:
Local government
Subject:
Democracy
Subject:
Political Process - General
Subject:
Political Ideologies - Democracy
Subject:
Government - Local
Edition Description:
1
Series:
American Politics and Political Economy Series
Publication Date:
20031203
Binding:
Hardback
Grade Level:
Professional and scholarly
Language:
English
Illustrations:
24 line drawings, 6 tables
Pages:
320
Dimensions:
9.00 x 6.00 in
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