New Hampshire Town Meeting and School Meeting Handbook
Author :
Publisher :
Page : 78 pages
File Size : 50,86 MB
Release : 2014
Category : Municipal government
ISBN :
Author :
Publisher :
Page : 78 pages
File Size : 50,86 MB
Release : 2014
Category : Municipal government
ISBN :
Author : New Hampshire Local Government Association
Publisher :
Page : 62 pages
File Size : 39,34 MB
Release : 2005
Category : Municipal government
ISBN :
Author : Brookline (Mass.). Town Meeting Members' Association
Publisher :
Page : 32 pages
File Size : 41,37 MB
Release : 1992
Category : Municipal government
ISBN :
Author : Francis F. Mills
Publisher :
Page : pages
File Size : 49,67 MB
Release : 1988
Category : Danvers (Mass.)
ISBN :
Author : Maine Municipal Association
Publisher :
Page : 32 pages
File Size : 46,21 MB
Release : 1938
Category : Local government
ISBN :
Author : Austin De Wolf
Publisher :
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 42,69 MB
Release : 1890
Category : Local government
ISBN :
Author : George Vernon Denny (Jr.)
Publisher :
Page : 44 pages
File Size : 20,88 MB
Release : 1940
Category : America's town meeting of the air (Radio program)
ISBN :
Author : Frank M. Bryan
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 333 pages
File Size : 25,51 MB
Release : 2010-03-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0226077985
Relying on an astounding collection of more than three decades of firsthand research, Frank M. Bryan examines one of the purest forms of American democracy, the New England town meeting. At these meetings, usually held once a year, all eligible citizens of the town may become legislators; they meet in face-to-face assemblies, debate the issues on the agenda, and vote on them. And although these meetings are natural laboratories for democracy, very few scholars have systematically investigated them. A nationally recognized expert on this topic, Bryan has now done just that. Studying 1,500 town meetings in his home state of Vermont, he and his students recorded a staggering amount of data about them—238,603 acts of participation by 63,140 citizens in 210 different towns. Drawing on this evidence as well as on evocative "witness" accounts—from casual observers to no lesser a light than Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn—Bryan paints a vivid picture of how real democracy works. Among the many fascinating questions he explores: why attendance varies sharply with town size, how citizens resolve conflicts in open forums, and how men and women behave differently in town meetings. In the end, Bryan interprets this brand of local government to find evidence for its considerable staying power as the most authentic and meaningful form of direct democracy. Giving us a rare glimpse into how democracy works in the real world, Bryan presents here an unorthodox and definitive book on this most cherished of American institutions.
Author : Patricia Stuart
Publisher :
Page : 52 pages
File Size : 31,42 MB
Release : 1973
Category : Connecticut
ISBN :
Author : Joseph F. Zimmerman
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 22,27 MB
Release : 1999-03-30
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0313003637
In this groundbreaking study, Zimmerman explores the town meeting form of government in all New England states. This comprehensive work relies heavily upon surveys of town officers and citizens, interviews, and mastery of the scattered writing on the subject. Zimmerman finds that the stereotypes of the New England open town meeting advanced by its critics are a serious distortion of reality. He shows that voter superintendence of town affairs has proven to be effective, and there is no empirical evidence that thousands of small towns and cities with elected councils are governed better. Whereas the relatively small voter attendance suggests that interest groups can control town meetings, their influence has been offset effectively by the development of town advisory committees, particularly the finance committee and the planning board, which are effective counterbalances to pressure groups. Zimmerman provides a new conception of town meeting democracy, positing that the meeting is a de facto representative legislative body with two safety valves—open access to all voters and the initiative to add articles to the warrant, and the calling of special meetings to reconsider decisions made at the preceding town meeting. And, as Zimmerman points out, a third safety valve—the protest referendum—can be adopted by a town meeting.