Beyond Adversary Democracy

About this book

"Beyond Adversary Democracy should be read by everyone concerned with democratic theory and practice."Carol Pateman Politics "Sociologists recurrently complain about how seldom it is that we produce books that combine serious theorizing about important issues of public policy with original and sensitive field research. Several rounds of enthusiastic applause then are due Jane Mansbridge . . . for having produced a dense and well written book whose subject is nothing less ambitious than the theory of democracy and its problems of equality solidarity and consensus. Beyond Adversary Democracy however is not simply a work of political theory; Mansbridge explores her abstract subject matter by close studies (using ethnographic documentary and questionnaire methods) of two small actual democracies operating at their most elemental American levels (1) a New England town meeting ("Selby " Vermont) and (2) an urban crisis center ("Helpline") whose 41 employees shared a New Left-Counterculture belief in participatory democracy and consensual decision-making. Mansbridge is a force to contend with. It is in our common interest that she be widely read."Bennett M. Berger Contemporary Sociology