Everyday Politics: Reconnecting Citizens and Public Life

by Harry C. Boyte

Increasingly a spectator sport, electoral politics have become bitterly polarized by professional consultants and lobbyists and have been boiled down to the distributive mantra of "who gets what." In Everyday Politics, Harry Boyte transcends partisan politics to offer an alternative. He demonstrates how community-rooted activities reconnect citizens to engaged, responsible public life, and not just on election day but throughout the year. Boyte demonstrates that this type of activism has a rich history and strong philosophical foundation. It rests on the stubborn faith that the talents and insights of ordinary citizens—from nursery school to nursing home—are crucial elements in public life.

Drawing on concrete examples of successful public work projects accomplished by diverse groups of people across the nation, Boyte demonstrates how citizens can master essential political skills, such as understanding issues in public terms, mapping complex issues of institutional power to create alliances, raising funds, communicating, and negotiating across lines of difference. He describes how these skills can be used to address the larger challenges of our time, thereby advancing a renewed vision of democratic society and freedom in the twenty-first century.

"As Mark Twain said about the weather, everybody talks about the need for a new politics of participation and deliberation, but nobody does anything about it. Harry Boyte has. Through a combination of experience, political analysis, and philosophy, he shows us how 'everyday politics' can actually improve people's lives."—Jennifer Hochschild, Harvard University, and editor of Perspectives on Politics

"Boyte's novel take on the burgeoning efforts to renew civic life is a must-read for scholars and community-based practitioners alike who are recreating work-centered commonwealth traditions in an information age."—David Mathews, President, Kettering Foundation

"An upbeat appraisal of how citizens have formed community organizations that have tackled local issues—crime, economic development—that government policies along could not address. This worthy antidote for political apathy includes several case studies of successful civic organizations."—Foreword Magazine

"This is a wonderful book for anyone with a concern about the failings of the present political system and culture and a need to explore ways to offset them. Highly recommended."—Choice

"Harry Boyte and the Center for Democracy and Citizenship have without doubt exercised the premier intellectual leadership role in the movement for civic renewal in the U.S. over the past decade. In Everyday Politics, Boyte describes their approach."—Carmen Sirianni, coauthor, Civic Innovation in America

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

264 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2004

About the author

Harry Boyte is founder and co-director of the Institute's Center for Democracy and Citizenship, and founder of Public Achievement, a theory-based practice of citizen organizing to do public work for the common good which is being used in schools, universities and communities across the United States and in more than a dozen countries.

He has worked with a variety of foundations, nonprofit, educational, neighborhood and citizen organizations concerned with community development, citizenship education, and civic renewal. In the 1960s, Boyte worked for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as a field secretary with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the southern civil rights movement.

Reviews

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

ILL USU Merrill Library JK 1764.B697 2004

I'm already loving this book and I'm only on the Introduction! Phrases like, "skilled, savvy citizen action," "moving from protest to governance," "citizen responsibility and empowerment," "deprofessionalize politics," the true meaning of politics being "the activity of amateurs, not specialists," "people of different views, interests and backgrounds interacting in order to accomplish a task."
*****
Finished chapter one. This is a little too scholarly to enjoy. It's a plow-through, re-read sentences, look up political terms as you go type of book.

But I still like the message. It's sort of "power to the people" in a cooperative, respectful, compassionate way. Grown up politics, in my opinion.
*****
I'm not anywhere near finished, nor do I want to do the work of finishing this book before it's due. I wonder if he wrote anything more citizen-friendly?

I learned that I'm a populist and didn't know it; that the term populist is sometimes disparaged, and used by crafty people who want to appeal to populism. And populists come from all walks of life. By definition, wanting the government back in the hands of the people means you're disillusioned and frustrated by how things are run, and that includes just about every ideology there is.

So, I'm looking for something less involved than this long-winded, although respectable, tome.