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

Bryan, Frank M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226077977 ISBN 13: 9780226077970

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2003

Synopsis

Can ordinary people really gather together and make laws that are binding on themselves and their communities? Frank M. Bryan discusses this with particular reference to the New England town meeting which provides a model of such a pure form of democracy.

About this title

Review

""This volume is the result of a labour that has stretched through thirty years of an academic career, yet it is as fresh, relevant, engaging and exciting as it is definitive. . . . The book is solidly scholarly, but is enlivened with astute, enlightening, touching, funny and occasionally moving observations. The meetings come to life, without the discipline of the analysis ever being lost."--Philip John Davies "Journal of American Studies "

"Let a good scholar labor a lifetime and then produce the unique and valuable book he was born to write. Professor Bryan has done this with considerable vigor and charm. His book is altogether a splendid piece of research, of imaginative data gathering, and of shrewd analysis."--Ronald Jager "Historical New Hampshire "

"I wish I had written this book. It is witty (about Vermont village life) and wise (about everything from Athenian democracy to the ecological fallacy). It deals with a phenomenon that deserves attention from every American concerned about the future of our polity. Town meetings are hardly the primary solution to what ails our democracy, but understanding how they work could help us design reforms on a larger canvas. Too few books are both fun and important, but this one is."Robert D. Putnam, Harvard University--Robert D. Putnam, Harvard University

"[The author] set out with his students' help to discover the essence of this democracy and to tell others about it. The result is the best book I have ever read on local government. It is, in unequal parts: careful consideration of democratic theory; exploration of a great range of germane empirical work; very rigorous, original quantitative research; vignette; personal diary; and handbook on engaging students in real social science. The writing . . . is direct and consistently engaging. The social science . . . is creative and imaginative. And I have rarely seen the results of systematic quantitative research so clearly and accessibly explained."--Gerald Benjamin "Political Science Quarterly "

"Simultaneously nostalgic and up-to-the-minute. Bryan's 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 "

"[Bryan] writes tellingly and thoroughly about Vermont's 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 can't be transferred to Iraq and Afghanistan, but its lessons are still relevant."
--Robert I. Rothberg "Christian Science Monitor "

"This book is informative and entertaining, a rare combination for a scholarly study."
--Thomas A. Karel "Library Journal "

"Frank Bryan has written a classic of American political science and a book that will entrance scholars of democracy world-wide. The culmination of a life's work, Real Democracy relentlessly interrogates the New England town meeting. . . . Real Democracy is a good book because of 30 years of careful research on a neglected topic; it is a great book because it is the fulfillment of a lifetime's passion: a 'lover's quarrel' with democracy as representation."--Laurence Piper "Theoria "

"Real Democracy is a magnificent analysis of the New England town meeting. It should be read again and again over the next hundred (indeed, the next thousand) years. Whether existing town meetings flourish and provide a model for the rest of the world or whether they lose their power and begin to wither, this book will provide the scholarly world's only basis for their systematic comparison in the future."Jane Mansbridge, Harvard University--Jane Mansbridge, Harvard University

"Real Democracy is an outstanding book that should be 'must reading' for any citizen concerned about the well-being of democracy in America and for all analysts interested in democratic practice. Bryan's book is a towering achievement, a product of a dedicated political scientist with a clear vision of the meaning of democracy and how best to assess its health and actions."Richard F. Winters, Dartmouth College--Richard F. Winters, Dartmouth College

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0226077977
• ISBN 13: 9780226077970
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 332