Explore the next form of democracy

In his new book The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule is Giving Way to Shared Governance - and Why Politics Will Never Be the Same, Matt Leighninger writes: "When you strategize with public officials about how they can engage citizens, they sometimes give you an unusually revealing assessment of their constituents. To them, ordinary people seem more capable, confident, and skeptical than ever before. Citizens may have less time for public life, but they bring more knowledge and skills to the table ... They have more to contribute to the solving of public problems, and less patience for those situations where they feel shut out by public officials. They are less connected to community affairs, and yet they seem better able to find the information, allies, and resources they need to affect an issue or decision they care about."

Leighninger will explore this shifting landscape between government and the governed in a book talk set for 5:30 p.m. this Thursday, September 27, at the Loyola University Law School in Chicago. The talk will be in the Rubloff Reception Room on the first floor of 25 E. Pearson St. (at Wabash). Leighninger says that his book "draws heavily from my experiences working with study circle programs over the last 14 years. It describes the challenges and accomplishments of these programs, and other similar experiments in democratic governance."

A longtime senior associate of the Study Circles Resource Center, Leighninger also is executive director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium. His book will be available at the Chicago event, or you can order it via the Vanderbilt University Press or your favorite bookseller.

Comments

[Matt Leighninger]

I've really enjoyed these kinds of book talks, since they give me a chance to talk with people about the projects they're involved in and the changes they see happening in local politics. I am hoping that the book will continue to bring much-deserved and much-needed attention to the civic experiments that are reshaping local democracy.

[Julie Fanselow]

Thanks, Matt. Your book is just packed with examples of creative democracy work happening all over the country, and I;m sure you are gathering enough material for a whole new volume via these talks and your other travel. We look forward to your sharing some of these stories and ideas here at DemocracySpace.