Author: Austin De Wolf
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Local government
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
Real Democracy
Author: Frank M. Bryan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226077985
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 333
Book Description
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.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226077985
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 333
Book Description
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.
Town Hall Meetings and the Death of Deliberation
Author: Jonathan Beecher Field
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 1452962383
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 98
Book Description
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
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 1452962383
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 98
Book Description
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
The Town Meeting
Author: Austin De Wolf
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Local government
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Local government
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
America's Town Meeting
Author: Town Hall, Inc
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 4
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 4
Book Description
The New England Town Meeting
Author: Joseph F. Zimmerman
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
This work explores the town meeting form of government. It provides a conception of town meeting democracy, positing that it is a de facto representative legislative body with three safety valves - access to all voters, the ability to add articles and call meetings, and the protest referendum.
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
This work explores the town meeting form of government. It provides a conception of town meeting democracy, positing that it is a de facto representative legislative body with three safety valves - access to all voters, the ability to add articles and call meetings, and the protest referendum.
Town Meeting Means Me
Author: Mina Turner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Municipal government
Languages : en
Pages : 58
Book Description
Explains what a town meeting is, how it works, and why it is important.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Municipal government
Languages : en
Pages : 58
Book Description
Explains what a town meeting is, how it works, and why it is important.
The Town Meeting
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Local government
Languages : en
Pages : 16
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Local government
Languages : en
Pages : 16
Book Description
Report of the Town Convention. [On the establishment of a Town Council.]
Author: BOSTON, Massachusetts. Town Convention
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 12
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 12
Book Description
Town Meeting for Americ
Author: William Bross Lloyd Jr.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781258586102
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 90
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781258586102
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 90
Book Description
Town Meeting Handbook
Author: Brookline (Mass.). Town Meeting Members' Association
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Municipal government
Languages : en
Pages : 32
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Municipal government
Languages : en
Pages : 32
Book Description