Book Review - The Next Form of Democracy...

The Next Form of Democracy –
How Expert Rule Is Giving Way to Shared Governance….and Why Politics Will Never Be the Same
Reviewed by Betsy McBride

Author: Matt Leighninger
Vanderbilt University Press
www.VanderbiltUniversityPress.com

www.deliberative-democracy.net

This excellent book is available through the Virginia Beach Library system.

Leighninger, Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium and Senior Associate of Study Circles Resource Center, writes from deep experience about communities reinventing the relationship between citizens and their government.

U. S. Senator Bill Bradley wrote in the Forward: “In this book, Leighninger chronicles a movement that is still too new to have a name (although groups like the National League of Cities refer to it as ‘democratic governance’). The phenomenon – which is taking shape across the country in many different ways – is fueled by the notion that public life is too important to be left solely to the professionals.”

The Introduction, titled “Things Your Mayor Never told You: The Recent Transformation of Local Democracy” is a perfect opening for this insightful tome. Matt Leighninger pulls the reader in immediately with his all-too-familiar settings –

“Lakewood, Colorado
September 9, 2004

It was an offhand comment, blurted out by someone in a crowd of people, and I was never able to figure out exactly who said it. The room was full of citizens and public officials; they were talking about why there was a lack of trust between the residents and local government of Lakewood, a small city just west of Denver. The mayor and city manager just didn’t understand how taxpayers could be dissatisfied with a city administration that had won awards for efficiency and innovation. Finally, some said it: ‘Look, we know you’re working hard for us, but what we’re got here is a parent-child relationship between the government and the people. What we need is an adult-adult relationship.’ It was the perfect summary of what I’d been watching in communities all over North America for the last ten years; a dramatic, generational shift in what people want from their democracy.”

The book is filled with stories and lessons from Kansas City, Delray Beach, St. Paul, Decatur, San Jose and dozens of other places. But Leighninger adds his analysis to draw out the themes that define our future governing relationships. The 28-pages of End Notes reflect care and scholarship and provide a rich resource for further reading on the next form of democracy.

Chapters Include:
1.Good Citizens and Persistent Public Problems

2.Is Everything Up to Date in Kansas City? Why “Citizen Involvement” May Be Obsolete

3.Of Pigs and People: Sprawl, Gentrification, and the Future of Regions

4.The Increasing Significance of Race in Public Life

5.Washington Goes to Mr. Smith: The Changing Role of Citizens in Policy Development

6.The Strange Career of Chuck Ridley: Drug Abuse, Community Organizing, and “Government by
a.Nonprofits

7.“Marrying” Schools and Communities: Endless Love or Affair to Remember?

8.Sharing the Buck: Communities Rethink Public Finances and Public Responsibilities