Includes bibliographical references (pages 224-260) and index.
Contents:
Democracy in crisis -- Democracy and inequality as a function of the balance of power -- Organizing for power -- From governance to power-rethinking democracy reform -- Bureaucratizing participation -- Power-oriented policy design -- Democracy's future.
Summary:
"On a frigid January evening in 2008, Barack Obama, then merely a junior senator from Illinois, shocked the political establishment by winning the Iowa Caucus. At the boisterous celebration rally, Obama delivered what would become one of the signature speeches of his political career, defining many of the central themes of his campaign and his presidency. "[T]he time has come," Obama declared, "to tell the lobbyists who think their money and their influence speak louder than our voices that they don't own this government-we do. And we are here to take it back!" If there was a central message in Obama's 2008 campaign for the White House, it was this faith in a revival of American democracy-the belief "that in the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.""-- Provided by publisher. "What will it take to restore American democracy and rescue it from this moment of crisis? Civic Power argues that the current threat to US democracy is rooted not just in the outcome of the 2016 election, but in deeper, systemic forms of inequality that concentrate economic and political power in the hands of the few at the expense of the many. Drawing on historical and social science research and case studies of contemporary democratic innovations across the country, Civic Power calls for a broader approach to democracy reform focused on meaningfully redistributing power to citizens. It advocates for both reviving grassroots civil society and novel approaches to governance, policymaking, civic technology, and institutional design - aimed at dismantling structural disparities to build a more inclusive, empowered, bottom-up democracy, where communities and people have greater voice, power, and agency." -- page [i]
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.