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Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government for the People
A stellar group of America's leading political thinkers explore how to reboot our democracy The presidential election of 2016 highlighted some long-standing flaws in American democracy and added a few new ones. Across the political spectrum, most Americans do not believe that democracy is delivering on its promises of fairness, justice, shared prosperity, or security in a changing world. The nation cannot even begin to address climate change and economic justice if it remains paralyzed by political gridlock. Democracy Unchained is about making American democracy work to solve problems that have long impaired our system of governance. The book is the collective work of thirty of the most perceptive writers, practitioners, scientists, educators, and journalists writing today, who are committed to moving the political conversation from the present anger and angst to the positive and constructive change necessary to achieve the full promise of a durable democracy that works for everyone and protects our common future. Including essays by Yasha Mounk on populism, Chisun Lee on money and politics, Ras Baraka on building democracy from the ground up, and Bill McKibben on climate, Democracy Unchained is the articulation of faith in democracy and will be required reading for all who are working to make democracy a reality. Table of Contents Foreword Introduction David W. Orr Part I. The Crisis of Democracy Populism and Democracy Yascha Mounk Reconstructing Our Constitutional Democracy K. Sabeel Rahman Restoring Healthy Party Competition Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson When Democracy Becomes Something The Problem of Elections and What to Do About It Andrew Gumbel The Best Answer to Money in Politics After Citizens Public Campaign Financing in the Empire State and Beyond Chisun Lee Remaking the Presidency After Trump Jeremi Suri The Problem of Presidentialism Stephen Skowronek Part II. Foundations of Democracy Renewing the American Democratic Faith Steven C. Rockefeller American Land, American Democracy Eric Freyfogle Race and The Kennedys, Obama, Trump, and Us Michael Eric Dyson Liberty and Justice for Latina Activist Efforts to Strengthen Democracy in 2018 Maria Hinojosa What Black Women Teach Us About Democracy Andra Gillespie and Nadia E. Brown Engines of Racial Justice and Cultural Power Rashad Robinson Civic and Environmental Protecting the Planet and Our Democracy Judy Braus The Supreme Court's Legitimacy Crisis and Constitutional Democracy’s Future Dawn Johnsen Part III. Policy Challenges Can Democracy Survive the Internet? David Hickton The New New How to Reregulate Capitalism Robert Kuttner First Understand Why They're How to Save Democracy from the Anti-Immigrant Far Right Sasha Polakow-Suransky No Time How the System Is Failing to Address Our Ultimate Crisis Bill McKibben Powering Democracy Through Clean Energy Denise G. Fairchild The Long American Foreign Policy Before and After Trump Jessica Tuchman Mathews Part IV. Who Acts, and How? The Case for Strong Government William S. Becker The States Nick Rathod Democracy in a Struggling Swing State Amy Hanauer Can Independent Voters Save American Democracy? Why 42 Percent of American Voters Are Independent and How They Can Transform Our Political System Jaqueline Salit and Thom Reilly Philanthropy and Democracy Stephen B. Heintz Keeping the Republic Dan Moulthrop The Future of Democracy Mayor Ras Baraka Building a University Where All People Matter Michael M. Crow, William B. Dabars, and Derrick M. Anderson Biophilia and Direct Democracy Timothy Beatley Purpose-Driven Capitalism Mindy Lubber Restoring Nature's Trust, Human Survival, and Constitutional Fiduciary Governance 397 Mary Christina Wood Conclusion Ganesh Sitaraman
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
470 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 3, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 26, 2025
This was a very good read that got me to think about more ways aside from the federal government itself that we can use to enact positive change.
October 26, 2020
Can't think of a better book to read weeks ahead of the 2020 election. There's so much work to do, but all of it is based on having a functioning democracy.
This compendium includes 30+ essays, split into four parts: The Crisis of Democracy, Foundations of Democracy, Policy Challenges, and Who Acts and How. While tempted to skip around, I didn't, and glad for it. I gained insight on democracy from a number of perspectives I wouldn't otherwise prioritize. This isn't to say all were great reads, but the sheer abundance minimizes the forgettable ones.
Some notable excerpts:
"... democracy is always a bet that enough people will know enough, care enough, be tolerant enough, and be informed enough to participate competently in the conduct of public business." (1, David Orr)
"... addiction to any device with a screen-- what Oliver Sacks describes as 'a neurological catastrophe on a gigantic scale...'"
"The fact that many of these [environmental] costs are incalculable does not make them any less real." (6, Orr)
"for over a decade, more countries have moved away from democracy than have moved toward it." (18, Mounk)
Asymmetric polarization: "Today's Republican Party... is an insurgent outlier. It has become ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition, all but declaring war on the government. The Democratic Party, while no paragon of civic virtue, is more ideologically centered and diverse, protective of the government's role as it developed over the course of the last century, open to incremental changes in policy fashioned through bargaining with Republicans, and less disposed to or adept at take-no-prisoners conflict between the parties. This asymmetry between the parties, which journalists and scholars often brush aside or whitewash in a quest for 'balance,' constitutes a huge obstacle to effective governance." (43, from Tom Mann and Norm Ornstein, longtime moderates).
"Three developing features of the American polity have facilitated this transformation of the Republican Party: the rising role of powerful and extreme groups within its coalition, the increasingly formidable presence of right-wing media, and the growing electoral advantages for the GOP as the country splits on rural-urban lines." (47, Hacker & Pierson)
"20th Century reformers built the 'modern' presidency by reworking the two main pillars of its power: political mobilization and governmental management." (98, Skowronek)
"Underlying any civilization, ancient or modern, is the land itself, the complex mix of soils, rocks, waters, plants, and animals that undergirds all terrestrial life. A civilization can flourish and endure only if it tends its lands and waters with reasonable care, limiting what is done to nature, where, and how. Failure to do so, particularly misuses of soils, has brought down more civilizations than any other cause. Before a civilization finally collapses it is beset with public health declines, political conflict, and weakened defenses. Bad land use, that is, ties directly not just to malnutrition and wars but also to internal conflict, exploitation, and despotism." (124, Freygoyle)
"Had the federal government remained hard-hearted toward drought-ruined farmers [of the Dust Bowl]--had it similarly refused to build levees, dams, and irrigation networks; to tame rivers for navigation; to expand coastal flood and crop insurance programs--our landscapes would function better ecologically and display richer biological diversity." (127, Freygoyle)
"Often white politicians fought the appearance of old-style racism while leaving in place the benefits and privileges of whiteness." (137, Dyson)
"Baldwin knew that tinkering with public policy was of little use if the value of black life had not been established. That's why he and his fellow blacks spent so much time insisting on being heard and, most important, seen." (141 Dyson)
"... racial justice is a strategy for securing, powering, and producing democracy, rather than merely as an eventual outcome of it." (173, Robinson)
"Only a quarter of Americans can name the three branches of federal government, and nearly a third cannot name a single one of the three... just one in three Americans would pass the U.S. citizenship test..." (185, Braus)
"... more than 86% of teachers feel that students should learn about climate change, but only 42% teach it." (188, Braus)
"A solution to climate change that lies forty years in the future is, by definition, not a solution. Winning slowly is just another name for losing." (259, McKibben)
"For the first time in a hundred years, we have an opportunity to re-imagine, re-engineer, and re-build our energy sector... There is no guarantee that a clean-energy revolution will put energy decisions, production, and money into the hands of consumers, or that it will break the monopolies and decentralize the energy grid. Without these things, the energy revolution could end up looking a lot like the digital revolution, hailed as the Great Equalizer in addressing gaping economic inequality but in fact only reproducing and magnifying it." (267, Fairchild)
"Who pays for it? Who owns it? Who governs it? Who benefits? Who has access? How do we deliver it? (268, Fairchild)
"Our current challenges require a strong national government fully engaged with states and the international community to de-carbonize the economy, re-democratize the country, revive the American promise of equal opportunity, and more." (303, Becker)
Public trust doctrine: "It designates the government as a trustee of natural resources, including air, streams, wildlife, the sea, and seashores--indeed all resources of 'public concern'--with a strict fiduciary responsibility to protect them for all citizens throughout time. The trust remains the primary legal mechanism to carry out the Constitution's promise to 'secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Prosperity'-- that is, our descendants."
"A trust is a unique form of property that splits the ownership of wealth between a trustee and a beneficiary. The trustee controls the assets, but must manage them for the exclusive and singular benefit of the beneficiary. In a public trust, courts designate the government, the only enduring institution in society, as the trustee of crucial natural resources." (398, Wood)
This compendium includes 30+ essays, split into four parts: The Crisis of Democracy, Foundations of Democracy, Policy Challenges, and Who Acts and How. While tempted to skip around, I didn't, and glad for it. I gained insight on democracy from a number of perspectives I wouldn't otherwise prioritize. This isn't to say all were great reads, but the sheer abundance minimizes the forgettable ones.
Some notable excerpts:
"... democracy is always a bet that enough people will know enough, care enough, be tolerant enough, and be informed enough to participate competently in the conduct of public business." (1, David Orr)
"... addiction to any device with a screen-- what Oliver Sacks describes as 'a neurological catastrophe on a gigantic scale...'"
"The fact that many of these [environmental] costs are incalculable does not make them any less real." (6, Orr)
"for over a decade, more countries have moved away from democracy than have moved toward it." (18, Mounk)
Asymmetric polarization: "Today's Republican Party... is an insurgent outlier. It has become ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition, all but declaring war on the government. The Democratic Party, while no paragon of civic virtue, is more ideologically centered and diverse, protective of the government's role as it developed over the course of the last century, open to incremental changes in policy fashioned through bargaining with Republicans, and less disposed to or adept at take-no-prisoners conflict between the parties. This asymmetry between the parties, which journalists and scholars often brush aside or whitewash in a quest for 'balance,' constitutes a huge obstacle to effective governance." (43, from Tom Mann and Norm Ornstein, longtime moderates).
"Three developing features of the American polity have facilitated this transformation of the Republican Party: the rising role of powerful and extreme groups within its coalition, the increasingly formidable presence of right-wing media, and the growing electoral advantages for the GOP as the country splits on rural-urban lines." (47, Hacker & Pierson)
"20th Century reformers built the 'modern' presidency by reworking the two main pillars of its power: political mobilization and governmental management." (98, Skowronek)
"Underlying any civilization, ancient or modern, is the land itself, the complex mix of soils, rocks, waters, plants, and animals that undergirds all terrestrial life. A civilization can flourish and endure only if it tends its lands and waters with reasonable care, limiting what is done to nature, where, and how. Failure to do so, particularly misuses of soils, has brought down more civilizations than any other cause. Before a civilization finally collapses it is beset with public health declines, political conflict, and weakened defenses. Bad land use, that is, ties directly not just to malnutrition and wars but also to internal conflict, exploitation, and despotism." (124, Freygoyle)
"Had the federal government remained hard-hearted toward drought-ruined farmers [of the Dust Bowl]--had it similarly refused to build levees, dams, and irrigation networks; to tame rivers for navigation; to expand coastal flood and crop insurance programs--our landscapes would function better ecologically and display richer biological diversity." (127, Freygoyle)
"Often white politicians fought the appearance of old-style racism while leaving in place the benefits and privileges of whiteness." (137, Dyson)
"Baldwin knew that tinkering with public policy was of little use if the value of black life had not been established. That's why he and his fellow blacks spent so much time insisting on being heard and, most important, seen." (141 Dyson)
"... racial justice is a strategy for securing, powering, and producing democracy, rather than merely as an eventual outcome of it." (173, Robinson)
"Only a quarter of Americans can name the three branches of federal government, and nearly a third cannot name a single one of the three... just one in three Americans would pass the U.S. citizenship test..." (185, Braus)
"... more than 86% of teachers feel that students should learn about climate change, but only 42% teach it." (188, Braus)
"A solution to climate change that lies forty years in the future is, by definition, not a solution. Winning slowly is just another name for losing." (259, McKibben)
"For the first time in a hundred years, we have an opportunity to re-imagine, re-engineer, and re-build our energy sector... There is no guarantee that a clean-energy revolution will put energy decisions, production, and money into the hands of consumers, or that it will break the monopolies and decentralize the energy grid. Without these things, the energy revolution could end up looking a lot like the digital revolution, hailed as the Great Equalizer in addressing gaping economic inequality but in fact only reproducing and magnifying it." (267, Fairchild)
"Who pays for it? Who owns it? Who governs it? Who benefits? Who has access? How do we deliver it? (268, Fairchild)
"Our current challenges require a strong national government fully engaged with states and the international community to de-carbonize the economy, re-democratize the country, revive the American promise of equal opportunity, and more." (303, Becker)
Public trust doctrine: "It designates the government as a trustee of natural resources, including air, streams, wildlife, the sea, and seashores--indeed all resources of 'public concern'--with a strict fiduciary responsibility to protect them for all citizens throughout time. The trust remains the primary legal mechanism to carry out the Constitution's promise to 'secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Prosperity'-- that is, our descendants."
"A trust is a unique form of property that splits the ownership of wealth between a trustee and a beneficiary. The trustee controls the assets, but must manage them for the exclusive and singular benefit of the beneficiary. In a public trust, courts designate the government, the only enduring institution in society, as the trustee of crucial natural resources." (398, Wood)
April 16, 2020
An excellent collection of essays! Interesting read.
August 2, 2020
I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads’ First Reads program. This was an interesting and timely collection of essays on the threats to democracy in the United States, and how “we the people” can navigate out of the current quagmire. There is a breadth to this collection I’ve rarely seen - many viewpoints are presented from academics in a variety of fields, so it doesn’t read like op-eds from political pundits.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews