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

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Democracy's Edge is about real people, and about making democracy real. From America's rural heartland to our largest cities, Frances Moore Lappe chronicles the actions of ordinary people whom she has met and interviewed, who are taking action to improve things in their communities. Democracy's Edge is a combination of practical information on issues, telling the story of various communities, and a hopeful yet pragmatic visioning. It reminds me of another great American writer and commentator, Studs Terkel. It is an important work for anyone interested in building a democracy -- a society in which people hold the power to govern.

This is an astonishing assembly of evidence that the news of democracy's demise has been greatly exaggerated. If you want to get excited about what your fellow citizens are doing out of the limelight of the mainstream "news" media, this book will hit the spot. Although Lappe has herself been a significant figure in grassroots progressive work for decades, and her experience clearly informs the conceptual framework she uses, this book is really about the work of an amazing array of others, and what can happen when we work together. It made me feel like cheering out loud.

Frances Moore Lappe beautifully transcends partisan politics in this third book of a trilogy about making a difference in one's life and the lives of others (Hope's Edge, You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear being the first two; I highly recommend reading them in that order). It was exciting for me to read about people who have successfully moved beyond apathy and into action to better the world. Bravo!

Frances Moore Lappé has done it again. After publishing Diet for a Small Planet (1971) I thought Lappé's search for the root causes of hunger were complete. In that watershed publication, she illuminated the true social and economic costs of corporate farming, carefully outlining how advertising and lobbying in Congress can work together to create a system that does not promote human or ecosystem health and well being for people here or abroad.

Now, in Democracy's Edge, Lappé shares another deeply insightful analysis of how we are in danger of losing our democratic way of life by the steady erosion of individual rights, biased media information, and attenuation of our voices in government. While she sees us at a critical juncture at which we might lose our democratic way of life, Lappé has done her homework again and personally interviewed people and organizations that are engaged in "living democracy" - a process, a verb, not a noun.

She debunks the idea that we are a divided nation and shares information poles that show most Americans, whether Republican or Democrat, are concerned about the same things: the economy, the environment, healthcare, and the right to balanced and complete information.

Lappé gives us a new lexicon of definitions for words like democracy, conservative, and liberal - and a fresh perspective about power. Throughout the book, Frances Moore Lappé illustrates how corporations have grown into the very fabric of our lives, and how they have defined for us who we are, what we like or don't like, and then why we can't change it.

Advertising and corporate-government alliances work against democratic process, yet we continue to support them through our 401K's, our shopping habits, and political choices!

Lappé is convinced we can deepen democratic process to one of a living democracy by paying attention, listening, and acting whenever we see anti-democratic forces shaping our lives and economy.

If we wish to have a truly democratic country, then we have to participate. She interviews people and groups who have shed their victim stance and realized that power is about relationships. Their understanding allows them to shift the power relationship with employers or political forces to gain leverage and a voice.

Seven states in the U.S. for example have a Working Families Party. Their states have voted in new democratic procedures that allow them to cross-endorse a candidate on more than one party ballot line (fusion voting - common in America before the nineteenth century). This allows their interests to be visible and begins to influence candidates to consider their votes as important to successful election.

Another innovation common in European democracies and many U.S. city elections is instant run-off voting that eliminates "throwing away" a vote by allowing voters to list their top three candidates in order of preference. If no one wins a majority, the bottom candidate is dropped and second preferences are counted until someone wins.

These breakaway forces are shaping Democrat and Republican platforms by revealing voter support on an issue. They give a voice to unheard Americans. Why do we think things will never change when here are examples of people doing it right now!

I highly recommend this book as a fresh and important new way for us to understand how we can become constructively engaged in creating a sustainable, compassionate society - a Good Neighbor nation.

Lappe uses head, heart, and hard facts to inspire action

In Frances Moore Lappe's Democracy's Edge, she challenges every one of us to move beyond inertia and complaints about the way things are. Armed with indisputable facts, she exposes corporate, legal, economic and social injustices while providing us with example after example of ordinary citizens whose voices and actions have changed the status quo and improved the condition of their communities.

This is a very important and timely book. It shines light where, at best, we sit in the shadows. It speaks truth that cuts at our numbness. It pulls us back from the brink before we become a colossal collective train wreck and points us toward sanity and renewal. Frances Moore Lappe's voice needs to be heard, as soon as possible, before attempts to retrieve our democracy become futile.

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

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.

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).

Lappe plots the needs of the future. She points out what is needed for this country to become a real democracy. There are lots of resources for those determined to act.