Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life

In her three-million-copy bestseller Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore Lappé forever changed our thoughts about the politics of food; now in her latest book, she shakes up our ideas about democracy.

America at the edge?It's worse than you think. It's better than you think.

Three out of five Americans, including both Republicans and Democrats, feel our country is headed in the wrong direction. America is at the edge, a critical place at which we can either renew and revitalize or give in and lose that most precious American ideal—democracy—and along with it the freedom, fairness, and opportunities it assures.

Democracy's Edge is a rousing battle cry that we can—and must—act now. From Jefferson to Eisenhower, presidents from both parties have warned us of the danger of letting a closed, narrow group of business and government officials concentrate power over our lives. Yet today, a small and unrepresentative group of people is making vital decisions for all of us.

But this crisis is only a symptom, Lappé argues. It's a symptom of thin democracy, something done to us or for us, not by or with us. Such democracy is always at risk of being stolen by private interests or extremist groups, left and right.

But there is a solution. The answer, says Lappé, is Living Democracy, a powerful yet often invisible citizens' revolution surging in communities across America. It's not random, disjointed activism but the emergence of a new historical stage of democracy in which Americans realize that democracy isn't something we have but something we do. Either we live it or lose it, says Lappé.

Americans of all political persuasions are rising up to change the very ground rules that have led to concentrated wealth and power. They are tackling problems that have stumped the elite experts—ranging from those in electoral politics to local economies—in the media, in security, in our schools. Democracy's Edge is a rousing call to join these groundbreaking individuals—to act now to reclaim the very heart and soul of American democracy.

Lappé (cofounder of Food First, the American News Service, and the Small Planet Institute) criticizes the dominant understanding of American democracy and proposes an alternate understanding of "Living Democracy" that she believes is needed to renew and revitalize the American political system. She identifies four problems constricting democracy: the belief that having just two political parties is the "American way," the role of campaign spending in our elections, free- market absolutism, and the idea that the sole responsibility of corporations is to the financial bottom line. She then describes examples of how various Americans are acting out "Living Democracy" practices, from economics and politics to food and the media. She concludes with a vision of how such practices can be connected in an overarching framework for transforming the whole society. Jossey-Bass is an imprint of Wiley. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The bestselling author of "Diet for a Small Planet" reveals a secret revolution that is happening across America, where ordinary citizens are rising up to battle the forces of consolidation of power and exclusion.

It's not random, disjointed activism but the emergence of a new historical stage of democracy in which Americans realize that democracy isn't something we have but something we do. Either we live it or lose it, says Lappe.

"To save the democracy we thought we had, we must take it to where it's never been."

—Frances Moore Lappé

"Poetic and passionate...A small number of people in every generation are forerunners, in thought, action, spirit, who swerve past the barriers of greed and power to hold a torch high for the rest of us. Lappé is one of those."

—Howard Zinn, author, A People's History of the United States

"Please, please, please make this audacious book a priority, for it is written with the most careful and tender feelings about what we are all so near to losing??—our democracy."

—Dame Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

"America is lost in a gnarled thicket of bought politicos, corporate con men, and media hucksters. Lappé has drawn the map that will get us out alive."

—Greg Palast, author, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

"With the clear thinking, plain talk, and penetrating insight that we have come to expect from her work, Lappé confronts fundamental problems directly and constructively."

—Noam Chomsky

"Lappé is a pioneer in democratic thought and action."

—Cornel West, University Professor of Religion, Princeton University

"Extraordinary. A provocative and exciting new approach to reviving democracy."

—Amy Domini, founder and CEO, Domini Social Investments

"Democracy's Edge is an exciting and hopeful account of the rebirth of a living American democracy as people connect with each other around the country to solve problems and build a better society."

—Jim Wallis, author, God's Politics, and convener and editor, Call to Renewal

Frances Moore Lappé, author of fifteen books, has received seventeen honorary doctorates and was the fourth American to receive the Right Livelihood Award, called the Alternative Nobel Prize. She is cofounder of Food First, the American News Service, and the Small Planet Institute, www.smallplanetinstitute.org.

Acknowledgments.

The Path.

PART ONE: Living on Democracy’s Edge.

Our journey to the edge and the forces making possible an invisible revolution of hope.

1. The Frame.

2. The Long Arc.

3. Power Is Not a Four-Letter Word.

PART TWO: Democracy Growing Up.

Outgrowing four beliefs that stymie us and discovering that power, even corporate power, isn’t so stuck after all.

4. Our Coat.

5. The Elephant.

PART THREE: Democracy as a Verb.

It’s not what we have, it’s what we do. Americans seize the rewards of self-direction.

6. Attention.

7. Action.

8. Choice.

9. Voice.

PART FOUR: Democracy in Our Bones.

Americans create a culture of empowered, connected people.

10. Learning.

11. Security.

12. The Invitation.

Two Frames for Democracy.

Toward a Language of Democracy.

Notes.

Entry Points for Living Democracy.

The Author.

Index.