The New England Town Meeting

Author : Frank M. Bryan
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 333 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2010-03-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780226077987

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Real Democracy by Frank M. Bryan Pdf

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.

Author : Joseph F. Zimmerman
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 1999-03-30
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780313003639

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The New England Town Meeting by Joseph F. Zimmerman Pdf

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.

Author : Jonathan Beecher Field
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
Page : 98 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2019-09-17
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781452962382

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Town Hall Meetings and the Death of Deliberation by Jonathan Beecher Field Pdf

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

Author : John Gould
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 72 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 1940
Category : Local government
ISBN : UCAL:$B50372

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New England Town Meeting by John Gould Pdf

Author : Donald L. Robinson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Direct democracy
ISBN : 1558498540

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Town Meeting by Donald L. Robinson Pdf

This text traces the origins of town-meeting democracy in Ashfield, a community in the foothills of the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. He shows how the town has changed since then and examines how democratic self-government functions in the modern context.

Author : Graham Smith
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 231 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2009-07-02
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780521514774

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Democratic Innovations by Graham Smith Pdf

This book examines democratic innovations from around the world, drawing lessons for the future development of both democratic theory and practice.

Author : Dan Ahearn
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 20 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Local government
ISBN : 0153332433

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New England Town Meeting by Dan Ahearn Pdf

Explains the process of a New England town meeting.

Author : John Frederick Martin
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Page : 380 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2014-01-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781469600031

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Profits in the Wilderness by John Frederick Martin Pdf

In examining the founding of New England towns during the seventeenth century, John Frederick Martin investigates an old subject with fresh insight. Whereas most historians emphasize communalism and absence of commerce in the seventeenth century, Martin demonstrates that colonists sought profits in town-founding, that town founders used business corporations to organize themselves into landholding bodies, and that multiple and absentee landholding was common. In reviewing some sixty towns and the activities of one hundred town founders, Martin finds that many town residents were excluded from owning common lands and from voting. It was not until the end of the seventeenth century, when proprietors separated from towns, that town institutions emerged as fully public entities for the first time. Martin's study will challenge historians to rethink not only social history but also the cultural history of early New England. Instead of taking sides in the long-standing debate between Puritan scholars and business historians, Martin identifies strains within Puritanism and the rest of the colonists' culture that both discouraged and encouraged land commerce, both supported and undermined communalism, both hindered and hastened development of the wilderness. Rather than portray colonists one-dimensionally, Martin analyzes how several different and competing ethics coexisted within a single, complex, and vibrant New England culture.

Author : Donald L. Robinson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 261 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Direct democracy
ISBN : 1613760361

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Town Meeting by Donald L. Robinson Pdf

Author : Susan Clark,Woden Teachout
Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
Page : 283 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781603584135

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Slow Democracy by Susan Clark,Woden Teachout Pdf

Reconnecting with the sources of decisions that affect us, and with the processes of democracy itself, is at the heart of 21st-century sustainable communities. Slow Democracy chronicles the ways in which ordinary people have mobilized to find local solutions to local problems. It invites us to bring the advantages of "slow" to our community decision making. Just as slow food encourages chefs and eaters to become more intimately involved with the production of local food, slow democracy encourages us to govern ourselves locally with processes that are inclusive, deliberative, and citizen powered. Susan Clark and Woden Teachout outline the qualities of real, local decision making and show us the range of ways that communities are breathing new life into participatory democracy around the country. We meet residents who seize back control of their municipal water systems from global corporations, parents who find unique solutions to seemingly divisive school-redistricting issues, and a host of other citizens across the nation who have designed local decision-making systems to solve the problems unique to their area in ways that work best for their communities. Though rooted in the direct participation that defined our nation's early days, slow democracy is not a romantic vision for reigniting the ways of old. Rather, the strategies outlined here are uniquely suited to 21st-century technologies and culture.If our future holds an increased focus on local food, local energy, and local economy, then surely we will need to improve our skills at local governance as well.

Author : Michael Zuckerman
Publisher : Acls History E-Book Project
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2008-11-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1597405329

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Peaceable Kingdoms by Michael Zuckerman Pdf

Author : David D. Hall
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2012-08-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780807837115

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A Reforming People by David D. Hall Pdf

In this revelatory account of the people who founded the New England colonies, historian David D. Hall compares the reforms they enacted with those attempted in England during the period of the English Revolution. Bringing with them a deep fear of arbitrary, unlimited authority, these settlers based their churches on the participation of laypeople and insisted on "consent" as a premise of all civil governance. Puritans also transformed civil and criminal law and the workings of courts with the intention of establishing equity. In this political and social history of the five New England colonies, Hall provides a masterful re-evaluation of the earliest moments of New England's history, revealing the colonists to be the most effective and daring reformers of their day.

Author : Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
Publisher : PublicAffairs
Page : 318 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2020-09-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781541788480

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A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling Pdf

A tiny American town's plans for radical self-government overlooked one hairy detail: no one told the bears. Once upon a time, a group of libertarians got together and hatched the Free Town Project, a plan to take over an American town and completely eliminate its government. In 2004, they set their sights on Grafton, NH, a barely populated settlement with one paved road. When they descended on Grafton, public funding for pretty much everything shrank: the fire department, the library, the schoolhouse. State and federal laws became meek suggestions, scarcely heard in the town's thick wilderness. The anything-goes atmosphere soon caught the attention of Grafton's neighbors: the bears. Freedom-loving citizens ignored hunting laws and regulations on food disposal. They built a tent city in an effort to get off the grid. The bears smelled food and opportunity. A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear is the sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying tale of what happens when a government disappears into the woods. Complete with gunplay, adventure, and backstabbing politicians, this is the ultimate story of a quintessential American experiment -- to live free or die, perhaps from a bear.

Author : DAVID LEVINSON,KAREN CHRISTENSEN
Publisher : SAGE
Page : 2045 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2003-06-30
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780761925989

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Encyclopedia of Community by DAVID LEVINSON,KAREN CHRISTENSEN Pdf

The Encyclopedia of Community is a major four volume reference work that seeks to define one of the most widely researched topics in the behavioural and social sciences. Community itself is a concept, an experience, and a central part of being human. This pioneering major reference work seeks to provide the necessary definitions of community far beyond the traditional views.

Author : Jane J. Mansbridge
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 412 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 1983-06-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780226503554

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Beyond Adversary Democracy by Jane J. Mansbridge Pdf

"Beyond Adversary Democracy should be read by everyone concerned with democratic theory and practice."—Carol Pateman, Politics "Sociologists recurrently complain about how seldom it is that we produce books that combine serious theorizing about important issues of public policy with original and sensitive field research. Several rounds of enthusiastic applause, then, are due Jane Mansbridge . . . for having produced a dense and well written book whose subject is nothing less ambitious than the theory of democracy and its problems of equality, solidarity, and consensus. Beyond Adversary Democracy, however, is not simply a work of political theory; Mansbridge explores her abstract subject matter by close studies (using ethnographic, documentary, and questionnaire methods) of two small actual democracies operating at their most elemental American levels (1) a New England town meeting ("Selby," Vermont) and (2) an urban crisis center ("Helpline"), whose 41 employees shared a New Left-Counterculture belief in participatory democracy and consensual decision-making. [Mansbridge] is a force to contend with. It is in our common interest that she be widely read."—Bennett M. Berger, Contemporary Sociology