Inciting Democracy: A Practical Proposal for Creating a Good Society - Softcover

Schutt, Randy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0970384114 ISBN 13: 9780970384119

Publisher: Spring Forward Pr, 2001

Synopsis

Inciting Democracy offers a vision of what a good society might look like and explores how we can overcome five key obstacles to creating such a society. It offers a practical proposal to develop a large, decentralized education and support program that can increase the knowledge and strength of hundreds of thousands of goodhearted people so they can democratically and nonviolently transform society. It also provides a realistic, long-term vision of success -- a vision that can encourage people working for positive change, thus making success more likely.

About this title

About the Author

Randy Schutt is a long-time progressive change activist, researcher, writer, and teacher. In California, he worked for change with the Stanford Committee for a Responsible Investment Policy, Citizens for Alternatives to Nuclear Energy, the Abalone Alliance, Livermore Action Group, the Center for Economic Conversion, the Pacific Studies Center, the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, Agape Foundation, and the Ruckus Society. Since 1980, he has facilitated over fifty workshops on cooperative decision-making, nonviolent direct action, and personal transformation. Randy holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. He grew up in Tyler, Texas and recently moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to be with his fiancee, Sue.

From the Inside Flap

Imagine a society where no one lives in poverty. Imagine a society where it is safe to walk city streets at any hour of the day or night. Imagine a society where rape, murder, and domestic violence are extremely rare occurrences. Imagine a society where racism, sexism, and other irrational hatreds are virtually unknown. Imagine a society where people laugh freely, openly, and often.

If it were your job to create such a genuinely good society, what would you do? What resources would you need? How would you go about it?

These are the questions progressive activist Randy Schutt addresses and answers in this unique and remarkable book. Drawing on his many years of social change experience and his study of scholarly and activist literature, Schutt details the five main obstacles that hinder current change efforts. He then describes a way to overcome these obstacles democratically and nonviolently by means of mass education and powerful social change movements.

Inciting Democracy depicts an uplifting process in which various grassroots movements work together to transform society over eighty years. It specifies a practical way to build and sustain these movements by means of an education and support program that greatly increases the knowledge, skills, and strength of goodhearted people working for positive change. It also lays out a realistic plan for implementing this education and support program.

This visionary and inspiring book will convince you it is possible to create a good society, and it will show you a way to bring it into existence.

Sensible, pragmatic, and hopeful, Inciting Democracy is essential reading for activists who work for positive change, scholars who study social movements, and anyone who yearns for a fair and compassionate society.

Special Contents: 71 figures, 44 sidebars, 270 quotations, 166 detailed endnotes, 233 annotated references, a bibliography of 110 other cited works, and a complete index.

Edition details

• Publisher: Spring Forward Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0970384114
• ISBN 13: 9780970384119
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 294