Name: Town Meeting: Practicing Democracy in Rural New England
Price: 50.01 EUR
Availability: InStock
Author: Robinson, Donald L.
ISBN: 9781558498556

portada Town Meeting: Practicing Democracy in Rural New England

Town Meeting: Practicing Democracy in Rural New England

Type

Physical Book

Author

Donald L. Robinson

Publisher

University of Massachusetts Press

Year

2010

Language

English

Pages

288

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.8 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm

Weight

0.44 kg.

ISBN

1558498559

ISBN13

9781558498556

Synopsis "Town Meeting: Practicing Democracy in Rural New England"

At Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln described government by the people as "the great task remaining before us." Many citizens of modern America, frustrated and disheartened, are tempted to despair of realizing that ideal. Yet, it is a project still alive in parts of New England. This book traces the origins of town-meeting democracy in Ashfield, a community of just under 2,000 people in the foothills of the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. Donald Robinson begins by recounting several crises at the town's founding in the eighteenth century that helped to shape its character. He shows how the town has changed since then and examines how democratic self-government functions in the modern context. The picture is not pretty. Self-government carries no guarantees, and Ashfield is no utopia. Human failings are abundantly on display. Leaders mislead. Citizens don't pay attention and they forget hard-earned lessons. But in this candid account of the operation of democracy in one New England town, Robinson demonstrates that for better and for worse, Ashfield governs itself democratically. Citizens control the actions of their government. Not everyone participates, but all may, and everyone who lives in the town must accept and obey what town meeting decides.

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Town Meeting: Practicing Democracy in Rural New England - Robinson, Donald L.

Synopsis "Town Meeting: Practicing Democracy in Rural New England"

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