The Vermont papers: Recreating democracy on a human scale [Hardcover]

Frank M Bryan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1989

Unabashed advocates of such basic American values as self-reliance, tolerance, diversity, and liberty, the authors argue that democracy is an endangered institution.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Building on Vermonters' longstanding decentralist traditions and independence of spirit, the authors of this ringing call for grassroots democracy propose that the state of Vermont serve as a social laboratory. More than a utopian exercise in anti-bureaucratic thought, their detailed blueprint would divide Vermont into 45 shires, each larger than a town yet smaller than a county. The shires would foster human-scale community and self-sufficiency, with broad powers over education, welfare and local problems; the state government's functions would shrink, though it would serve as a protector of the environment and civil rights. The authors' eloquent manifesto--Bryan is a political science professor at the University of Vermont, and Vermont state senator McClaughry was a policy adviser in the Reagan White House--raises important issues and transcends conventional liberal/conservative labels.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Here's a quick checklist of the heroes and villains invoked in The Vermont Papers. Good guys: The People, cussed hardscrabble liberal Vermonters; direct democracy; town meetings; and the "George Washington of Vermont ... the boozing, brawling, blasphemous giant," Ethan Allen. The Bad Guys: elites; technocrats; centralism; almost all state-wide standards; many environmentalists; the education lobby that has killed small schools; and all "systems manipulators" who, by statute and bureaucracy, exercise a feudal power over the Green mountains of Vermont. The People yes! say the authors Frank Bryan and John McClaughry. Though they excuse themselves from liberal and conservative labels, they are populists throughout, from the book's dedication to Ethan Allen, to the back cover flap showing Bryan in his John Deere cap and McClaughry in a Farm Bureau chapeau. What Brookings Institute fellow, what Heritage Foundation pundit would be pictured in a feed cap? Bryan, an associate professor of political science at the University of Vermont, has been gathering data on town meetings (that forum of pure democracy) for the last ten years; McClaughry was a senior policy advisor in the Reagan White House and, more importantly, has been a townmeeting moderator for twenty-two years. Both have ridden the roller coaster of public discussion many times and still they say let the people with the mud on their boots decide everything. If Bryan and McClaughry have their way, Vermont, as we know it, will cease to exist. This book is an earnest, detailed blueprint to transform Vermont, shrinking the state government by three-quarters and returning power to the towns and a new entity, the shire (an area somewhat smaller than a county). Vermont would, in the Swiss manner, become a federation of autonomous cantons, here not working with Swiss precision but rather a "healthy chaos" of cantankerous Yankee republics. Back to the towns and shires go welfare, education, the lower courts, roads, and much taxation. In a reversal of the usual order, all unspecified powers are reserved by the town and shire, not the state. The state looks after civil rights and the environment (but no prissy ordinances against leaving a junk car or three in the dooryard); runs a supreme court; and administers all sundry financial matters. This shrunken state government is Ereed up to lobby the Federal government and play a world role (through die Office of Global Involvement). "Our reform abandons the way of government currently in favor: education by mega-standards, welfare by mailbox, police protection by radio, and health care by stranger," say the authors. If the roads and schools vary from shire to shire, then that is the price of democracy. The bulk of the book is taken up with the intricate details of this new goverturient, including everything from creating heraldry and pageants for the shire to a ten-point program for agriculture and a timetable for a Vermont constitutional convention to set their plan in motion. -- From Independent Publisher

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Pub. Co; 1ST edition (1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0930031199
• ISBN-13: 978-0930031190
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,367,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recreating Democracy on a Human Scale, May 18, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Vermont papers: Recreating democracy on a human scale (Hardcover)

Having just seen the review posted by Independent Publisher (1998) - right on the money! Ten years after publication, The Vermont Papers is still the only blueprint for dismantling overgrown liberty-destroying political superstructures and restoring true LOCAl democracy with widespread civic involvement. And we also thought it was pretty entertaining, too. (from co-author John McClaughry, now 32 years a Town Moderator)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Time for a Green Tea Party, October 5, 2010

By 

Jason A. Gagnon (Cobleskill, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Vermont Papers: Recreating Democracy on a Human Scale (Paperback)

We keep rotating people through the same sets of offices, hoping that each new person will somehow use the same set of tools as their predecessor, but behave differently. But as they say, to the man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Perhaps it is time to try something new?

The authors stand athwart history with mud on their boots and farm bureau hats on their heads, yelling Enough is Enough! Centralization of power and authority has destroyed our communities- what is needed is a radical decentralization. Subsidiarity is the rule of thumb in this fantastic book, as the governmental structure of Vermont is re-imagined at a Human Scale (hat tip to the great Kirkpatrick Sale).

Worth reading? Absolutely, no matter where you live. This is a truly radical text that can be embraced by both the Left and Right. What happens to a community with nothing to do? It stops being a community. If you are interested in restoring communities and rebuilding human institutions at a human scale, this book is a must read.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Native Vermonter agrees, the State must reinvent itself, January 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Vermont papers: Recreating democracy on a human scale (Hardcover)

Government at a distance does not work. It is easy to ignore the personal responsibility of governance when it is not local. First we allowed the State to take over the rule making and curriculums of our schools and now the Federal authorities are making global rulings on school operations. Those who wish to control find it easier to make rules once at the Federal level and force all to submit to their vision. Return the control to the local levels.