The Town Meeting

The Town Meeting PDF Author: Austin De Wolf
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Local government
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Get Book Here

Book Description

Real Democracy

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

Get Book Here

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

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

Get Book Here

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 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

Get Book Here

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.

The Town Meeting

The Town Meeting PDF Author: Austin De Wolf
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Local government
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Get Book Here

Book Description


America's Town Meeting

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

Get Book Here

Book Description


The New England Town Meeting

The New England Town Meeting PDF Author: Joseph F. Zimmerman
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book Here

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

Town Meeting Means Me PDF Author: Mina Turner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Municipal government
Languages : en
Pages : 58

Get Book Here

Book Description
Explains what a town meeting is, how it works, and why it is important.

Report of the Town Convention. [On the establishment of a Town Council.]

Report of the Town Convention. [On the establishment of a Town Council.] PDF Author: BOSTON, Massachusetts. Town Convention
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 12

Get Book Here

Book Description


Town Meeting for Americ

Town Meeting for Americ PDF Author: William Bross Lloyd Jr.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781258586102
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 90

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Votes and Proceedings of the Freeholders and Other Inhabitants of the Town of Boston in Town Meeting Assembled, According to Law. Published by Order of the Town. To which is Prefixed ... an Attested Copy of a Vote of the Town at a Preceding Meeting. [Protesting Against the Treatment of the Colonists by Great Britain.]

The Votes and Proceedings of the Freeholders and Other Inhabitants of the Town of Boston in Town Meeting Assembled, According to Law. Published by Order of the Town. To which is Prefixed ... an Attested Copy of a Vote of the Town at a Preceding Meeting. [Protesting Against the Treatment of the Colonists by Great Britain.] PDF Author: BOSTON, Massachusetts. Town Meeting
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 56

Get Book Here

Book Description