America's Town Meeting

America's Town Meeting PDF Author: Town Hall, Inc
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 4

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Real Democracy

Real Democracy PDF Author: Frank M. Bryan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226077985
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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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.

America's Town Meeting

America's Town Meeting PDF Author: Town Hall, Inc
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 4

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Town Meeting for Americ

Town Meeting for Americ PDF Author: William Bross Lloyd Jr.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781258588809
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 90

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Town Meeting: Bulletin of America's Town Meeting of the Air

Town Meeting: Bulletin of America's Town Meeting of the Air PDF Author: Columbia University. Press
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages :

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Town Hall Meetings and the Death of Deliberation

Town Hall Meetings and the Death of Deliberation PDF Author: Jonathan Beecher Field
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 1452962383
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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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

Bulletin of America's Town Meeting of the Air

Bulletin of America's Town Meeting of the Air PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : America's town meeting of the air
Languages : en
Pages : 742

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The New England Town Meeting

The New England Town Meeting PDF Author: Joseph F. Zimmerman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313003637
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
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.

Are You Getting the Full Benefit of America's Town Meeting of the Air?

Are You Getting the Full Benefit of America's Town Meeting of the Air? PDF Author: Town Hall, Inc
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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America's Town Meeting of the Air: What Does American Democracy Mean to Me?

America's Town Meeting of the Air: What Does American Democracy Mean to Me? PDF Author: Mary McLeod Bethune (1875)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 2

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Why Town Meeting?

Why Town Meeting? PDF Author: George Vernon Denny (Jr.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : America's town meeting of the air (Radio program)
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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