Practical Politics: Five Principles for a Community That Works

by Michael K. Briand, Briand

This wise and sensible guide to practicing democracy will be invaluable to members of community and neighborhood organizations, parent-teacher associations, local government, citizens groups, and other grass-roots organizations.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A friend lent me this book, otherwise I would not have known of its existence. I really liked it at first, but as it went on, reading it became more of a chore, and I also became less enthusiastic about the content. This may have been because of the repeated use of the example of abortion, and my impatience with the author's approach to that topic. Eventually, this reminded me of just how difficult the kind of approach the author advocates really is, and the enormous reservoirs of patience required to endure it. While I might wish that our society were organized around this, because of the good that might result, I must admit that my own personal desire to be left alone makes me aware that I might not be the ideal audience for this particular book! Maybe I only like impractical politics?

Side note: this does give me a bit of insight into why books that only complain and offer no good solutions are more popular than books than that describe how to solve problems. Much more fun to rant, but thinking and doing the hard work of improvement is not so sexy!