Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life

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.

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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Is America's Fundamental Problem a "level of analysis problem?", 2008-12-03
Ms. Lappe's book comes highly recommended by people I respect a great deal, including, Professor Cornel West and Dr. Noam Chomsky, and also a fellow reviewer, Dr. Richard D. Steele, all of who's reviews I read with great interest.

For me, the book had the same very warm feeling about it that seemed to have been shared by others, and yet also for me, among all of the sage and practical advice, there was something about it that simply did not ring true, and even disturbed me. Respectfully, I found Ms. Lappe's clichéd foundation assumption about the endless goodness of the American people (the Rodney King anthem, now adopted as Mr. Obama's campaign song: "why can't we all just get along.") a bit facile, tiring, politically naïve and frankly wrong. And to use Dr. Phil's mantra: You can't fix what you don't acknowledge," (no matter how well meaning your ideas or how high-minded your spirit, may be). The idea that Americans always put "ends" over "means" simply does not square with the history of this country. Moreover, there are several very good recent books that will back me up on this. Just to name two that come immediately to mind, I mention in passing, Drew Westen's "The Political Brain," and Morris Berman's "Dark Ages in America" (both of which I have reviewed here on Amazon.com). These men are as concerned about America's political mental health as I am, and as is Ms. Lappe. And thus, this undue reliance on, and unchallenged reverence for, the endless "goodness of the American people" belies the stark reality of American politics.

At a minimum American politics is a "blood sport;" and at most, it is "all out class and racial warfare." In fact, if you do not come up off the ground spitting up blood or missing teeth, you have not been paying attention, or can't really proved that you were in the game in the first place. Put simply, it is time for us adults to get serious about what kind of country we have shaped and about what kind of democracy has evolved as a result of our very checkered history. I am a black man, but I am not making any special pleading for black people when I invoke the idea of race or racism in American politics, I am simply pointing to a reality that exists at a different level of analysis than that to which Ms. Lappe is appealing to, and viewing the American political process through a slightly different prism. The fact that she failed to mention race at all, makes me wonder what universe of politics she is really operating in?

Ms. Lappe seems to think "America's problem" is at the organizational level, one of apathy, lack of interest, lack of motivation, a need for grassroots reorganization, and she is right: But does she not realize that there is so little activity at the grass roots level because people have seen this movie so many times before they have simply finally lost faith? The disease is thus in the bloodstream, in the undercurrents, in the psyche, not on the surface. The time for quick fixes has long since been over.

The problem lies elsewhere at the level of the nation's DNA. Unless I have not been paying attention, the root cause of the "American disease" is sublimated racial hatred. It is not just idle speculation that I believe that this is the phenomenon that is in the driver's seat of all of the mean spiritedness and that is giving the political demagogues a free hand to shape our democracy into what "they think we want it to become."

As a result, all of the energy has been sapped right out of the American bloodstream by the whipsaw of demagogic politics, which has been used like a "meat cleaver" to cleanly separate "means" from "ends," slicing and dicing us like a Thanksgiving turkey into neat piles of black and white meat. To Ms. Lappe, I respectfully submit that this is a more realistic alternative picture of what the insides of the American political mind look like than the rosy one she offers here. And yet, it is not her problem, or even the demagogue's problem, for they are both just trying to pick the low hanging fruit. It is a disease that exists in, and thus must first be fixed in, the American soul.

Ms. Lappe seems to have forgotten that arguably, "to be American," by definition means to be able to passively enjoy the permanent advantages of whiteness, and little more. For the rest of us all the talk about "democracy" means "pretending" that bye-and-bye, things will get better and taking "tokenism" for the new democratic reality. For black people, bye-and-bye has come and gone several times. And now, even for white people, especially for poor white people, the continued demagogic whiplash that frames American politics, has become just a little too much, and a little too stale: The game of: "The ends are to hold what we've got;" the means: are "by any means necessary," has simply gone too far. Grassroots efforts simply cannot overpower such a twisted process and thus ceases to make sense in that kind of political environment.

The point is that as soon as a grassroots group becomes viable enough to make waves, or achieves a seat at the table, or presses for "real democracy," as Mr. Obama's group in the Algeld Housing Projects in South Chicago tried to do (while he was a community organizer), the rules of the game are then changed.

Mr. Obama is not the only one who failed at this level of analysis, and now has moved up to another level. (Let us see how he will do there?) The same has happened with the 1954 Supreme Court Decision on school integration, with Affirmative Action, with small business loans, and with the EEOC, etc, etc, ad infinitum.

Thus the reality of American politics does not lie in its rhetoric, or in generating warm feelings, but in the nation's cold-blooded processes and the way those processes have been shaped to repeatedly defeat just the kind of grassroots actions that Ms. Lappe suggests here. Maybe America is not interested in "real" change?

To end, I have a new axiom for Ms. Lappe's consideration, which I challenge her to disprove : In American politics, tokenism is tolerated, because it gives the impression and a warm feeling that our democracy is still working, but with everything beyond tokenism, all bets are off: "Means" then justify the "ends." Period.

Three stars.


9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

Read the Other Reviews, This One Connects Some Dots, 2007-05-31
There are some excellent reviews of this book, so I will summarize the key points briefly and then point to the top ten books on my Transpartisan Democracy list.

This is a delightful, thoughtful read that is totally transpartisan in spirit, and joins other books like Escaping the Matrix and Society's Breakthrough in setting the stage for a non-violent restoration of We the People as the working owners of the Republic.

The author distinguishes between thin and living democracy, points out that democracy is a process, and you must live it or lose it. The two appendices are superb, one on competing frames (one page) and one on restoring the meaning of language for democracy (3 pages). I recommend taking a look at them before reading the book itself.

I have a note in my margin, "Lappe for President." Seriously. Lappe, not Hillary Clinton, and certainly not Condi Rice, is precisely the kind of Epoch B leader we need right now, someone who can energize Wisdom Councils at every level, and convene Global Intelligence Councils and Global Policy Councils on the ten threats, twelve policies, and eight players other than the EU and the US (see my comment for a URL).

I absolutely agree with her that poverty is caused by a lack of democracy. Dictators and Wall Street have created a class war in which the few are looting the natural resources of the many, and it is time we put a stop to that, to include disbanding the World Bank, the IMF, and the World Trade Organization.

She says that voice is the heart of democracy, and that a culture of connection is now being woven (see Blessed Unrest, Tao of Democracy, and Society's Breakthrough).

She says that the split is not between left and right, but rather between those who believe in democracy and We the People, and those that do not (see George Orwell's Animal Farm--we are all being harvested for profit by a handful).

In the author's view, the crisis is our feeling of helplessness, and the solution is to widen the circle of problem solvers. Well, Joe Trippi is going to bring us the "Big Bat" to channel $500M a year into the Transpartisan Peoples' Trust, and Reuniting America will join with the World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility (WISER) to connect all of the people all of the time.

There is such a wealth of gifted insight in this book that I do not want to list all the points that made it to my fly-leaf. BUT THIS BOOK. Discuss it with friends. Send this review to everyone you wish to engage in this national conversation.

There is a breathtaking graphic on page 33 in which she lists the seven main areas affecting our public life, and then lists specific individual roles of the citizen in each of these, which I depict by the number in parenthesis:

Economic Life (9 roles)
Media (3 roles, but she neglected to mention citizen journalist)
Education (6 roles)
Cultural (9 roles)
Civic life (7 roles)
Human and Health Care Services (6 roles)
Religious Life (3 roles)

True power, good power, is our multiple relationships to one another. We can get rid of money TOMORROW and shift to localized currencies and Internet barter points. Governments should not be going into debt to banks, they should nationalize them!

She destroys the four prevailing myths:
1) that we only need two parties
2) that we cannot limit private money in politics
3) that we must not tamper with the "free" market
4) that corporations are only responsible for short-term bottom line

See my varied lists, especially on Natural Capitalism and on Democracy, for more recommended readings that strongly support her concise views.

She lists eight corporate crimes:
1) Enrichment through manipulated public giveaways
2) Tax avoidance
3) Global Warming (we have to pay)
4) Hazardous Waste (we have to pay)
5) Profits retained by the managers, worker's salaries do not increase
6) Concentration killing our health industry (and agriculture and energy)
7) Low corporate wages force us to pay benefits--Wal-Mart costs us $2.5 billion a year because their employees are so badly paid they qualify for public benefits! This is NUTS!
8) Campaign to eradicate unions leaves workers without voice or protection

I am quite pleased to learn from this author that townships are passing laws abolishing corporate citizenship. This needs to be a nation-wide finding.

Pension fund managers are one key to victory over corporations.

SA8000 sets global standards for fair labor conditions. We need to enforce it with our purchases.

Expectations and fairness matter. COSTCO pays its employees more, and gives them good benefits, yet applies only 7% of its budget to labor. Wal-Mart treats them like slaves, and applies 12% because of turn-over.

Part III has chapters on attention, action, choice, and voice, and focuses on the need to create localized economies with local currencies, community banking, and 100% worker ownership. That, in my view, is precisely where we are headed.

She lists 11 sources of citizen power, credited to the Industrial Areas Foundation:
1) Relational
2) Self-Interest
3) Listening
4) Tapping passion
5) Storytelling
6) Disciplined preparation
7) Actions and intentional tension (helps reframing)
8) Negotiation
9) Accountability
10) Mentoring
11) Reflection and evaluation

She lists five ways we are robbed of choice by corporations, and ten losses we suffer from corporations. She reminds us that Thomas Jefferson was very concerned in the 1790's about commercial monopolies, and concludes, correctly, that corporations have more power and as much secrecy as the Communist Party in China and Russia.

She presents loss of voice facts on pages 222-224, addresses the need for democratic software and low-cost Internet access for all (good-bye, Microsoft, unless everyone can get mobile Windows for a dollar a month.

She concludes with chapters on learning, security, and reframing.

This book is magical in its common sense and imminent applicability.

Top Ten Transpartisan Books Other Than This One:
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
Escaping the Matrix: How We the People can change the world
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Bk Currents)
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
A House Divided
The Nine Nations of North America
Who Will Tell The People? : The Betrayal Of American Democracy
The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy



3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

The Power of Grassroots Engagement, 2007-02-24
Though "Democracy's Edge" is a polemical work (there seem to be two kinds of Americans in the book: what Moore-Lappé calls the Far Right -- exemplified by the Bush Administration and its corporate cronies -- and everyone else), it is also intended to be a book of hope. There are stories of dozens if not hundreds of citizen groups that are making a real difference in politics, education, and workers' rights in accord with her definition of democracy.

"Living Democracy" involves "negotiating interests by relying on fair play, honest dialogue and mutual respect." It's "not just righting a particular injustice that limits people's freedom. It's changing how decisions are made." Humanity's task, says the author, "is to envision and create institutions, from our schools to our media to our businesses, that foster our democratic selves -- people able to feel and express empathy and to see through the walls of race, culture and religion that divide us, people who know how to exert power while maintaining relationship."

By contrast, what she calls "thin" democracy -- in which politicians proclaim "power to the people" but arrogate power to themselves instead -- perpetuates "four constricting measures" that limit the expansion of Living Democracy. These "misfits" include the assumption that two political parties are enough; that any real limits on campaign spending violate free speech; that "the free market brings us all prosperity"; and that "to keep generating wealth, corporations must consider only the financial bottom line." (While Moore-Lappé welcomes globalization "understood as ... communication and sharing across national borders," she rejects what she calls "global corporatism.")

"Democracy's Edge" is designed to counter each of those ingrained notions with success stories of people united by a common purpose changing how democracy is done. She spotlights the work of such organizations as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and the Industrial Areas Foundation (founded by "Saul Alinsky, the godfather of community organizing"). Hers is a leftist agenda, though she does not use that term, preferring instead to frame her proposals as "walking with bold humility" in reclaiming the kind of human relationships that Living Democracy ought to be about.

A chart at the end of the book invites readers to "consciously generate language that communicates what is emerging and what we want to bring into being." Her preferred term is "engaged citizen" rather than "activist." The seemingly neutral term "conventional farming" becomes "chemically dependent farming." "Liberal" becomes "progressive, democratic." She calls "pro-choice" the "pro-child movement including the right of every child to be wanted with opportunities for a full life." Finally, "taxes" are "membership dues for a strong, healthy society."

Moore-Lappé paints a provocative picture, worth the spirited public discussion it generates.

Copyright 2007 Chico Enterprise-Record. Used by permission.




5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Activists for democracy: here's your guide to involvement!, 2006-05-28
Frances Moore Lappe has written a book that is easy to read, its pages filled with brief and concise facts and comparisons, and above all correct in its analysis of the state of American democracy. She doesn't leave the reader to guess about whether a new people's democracy is possible; she shows it coming into being in highly diverse settings. And if anyone has thought otherwise, she disabuses us of any idea that in the U.S. of A. we currently have democracy. It would be difficult to read this book all the way through and not find oneself eager to get involved.

Richard W. Gillett, author of The New Globalization: Reclaiming the Lost Ground of our Christian Social Tradition (Pilgrim Press, 2005).


9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

We Need to be Reminded, 2006-04-26
Democracy's Edge is a collection of stories of ordinary people actively practicing what the author really correctly dubs Living Democracy. When I read this, the book reminded me straight on how fragile freedoms and protections are, how easily they can be dissolved or subverted by corporate, personal, and political greed...ambitions which truly stop for no man (or woman)in the quest for taking more, more, more. So if you're worried about the pollution, land grabbing, political manipulations of law, etc and want inspiration and some guidance on whether and how you can make a difference with just one voice, read this book. It's SO EASY to read, and lacks the fractious tone that many champions of our freedoms (read liberal or left-leaning)can take, and sometimes push people away with.

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