Democracy's Edge Choosing to Save Our Country By Bringing Democracy to Life

Lappe, Frances Moore with the Assistance of Rachel Burton, Anna Lappe, and Hope Richardson

ISBN 10: 0787943118 / ISBN 13: 9780787943110

Published by Jossey-Bass A Wiley Imprint, 2006

About this Item

Head and heel of spine coverings bend in on edges. Dust jacket edges rubbed. Orange covers with silver lettering on spine. 471 pages. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Seller Inventory # 020823

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Democracy's Edge Choosing to Save Our Country By Bringing Democracy to Life
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass A Wiley Imprint
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0787943118
• ISBN 13: 9780787943110
• Binding: Hard Cover
• Edition: First Edition, 1st Printing.
• Condition: Very Good+
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good+
• Seller catalogs:
  • Political and Legislative

About this title

Synopsis

Three out of five Americans, both Republicans and Democrats, feel our country is headed in the wrong direction. America is at the edge, a critical place at which we can either renew and revitalize or give in and lose that most precious American ideal—democracy—and along with it the freedom, fairness, and opportunities it assures. Democracy’s Edge is a rousing battle cry that we can—and must—act now.  From Jefferson to Eisenhower, presidents from both parties have warned us of the danger of letting a closed, narrow group of business and government officials concentrate power over our lives. Yet today, a small and unrepresentative group of people is making vital decisions for all of us.

But this crisis is only a symptom, Lappé argues. It’s a symptom of thin democracy, something done to us or for us, not by or with us. Such democracy is always at risk of being stolen by private interests or extremist groups, left and right.  But there is a solution. The answer, says Lappé, is Living Democracy, a powerful yet often invisible citizens’ revolution surging in communities across America. It’s not random, disjointed activism but the emergence of a new historical stage of democracy in which Americans realize that democracy isn’t something we have but something we do. Either we live it or lose it, says Lappé.

About the Author

Frances Moore Lappé, author of fifteen books, has received seventeen honorary doctorates and was the fourth American to receive the Right Livelihood Award, called the Alternative Nobel Prize. She is cofounder of Food First, the American News Service, and the Small Planet Institute, www.smallplanetinstitute.org.