The health of American democracy ultimately depends on our willingness and ability to work together as citizens and stakeholders in our republic. Government policies often fail to promote such collaboration. But if designed properly, they can do much to strengthen civic engagement. That is the central message of Carmen Sirianni's eloquent new book. Rather than encourage citizens to engage in civic activity, government often puts obstacles in their way. Many agencies treat citizens as passive clients rather than as community members, overlooking their ability to mobilize assets and networks to solve problems. Many citizen initiatives run up against rigid rules and bureaucratic silos, causing all but the most dedicated activists to lose heart. The unfortunate -and unnecessary -result is a palpable decline in the quality of civic life. Fortunately, growing numbers of policymakers across the country are figuring out how government can serve as a partner and catalyst for collaborative problem solving. Investing in Democracy details three such success stories: neighborhood planning in Seattle; youth civic engagement programs in Hampton, Virginia; and efforts to develop civic environmentalism at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The book explains what measures were taken and why they succeeded. It distills eight core design principles that characterize effective collaborative governance and concludes with concrete recommendations for federal policy.
Carmen Sirianni is professor of sociology and social publicy at the Heller Graduate School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University. Most recently he was coordinator of the collaborative governance gropu within the Obama '08 urban policy committee. He served as senior adviser to the National Commission on Civic Renewal from 1996 to 1998 and as research director for the Reinventing Citizenship Project, in conjunction with the White House Domestic Policy Council and the Ford Foundation, in 1994. His many books include The Civic Renewal Movement: Community Building and Democracy in the U.S. (Kettering Foundation Press, 2005) and Civic Innovation in America (University of California Press, 2001), both written with Lewis Friedland.
"Investing in Democracy is a wonderful book that arrives at a critical time. Sirianni explains in lucid language how government can create an environment and ethos in which citizens work together solve the unprecedented challenges that Americans face. Citizens and public leaders will learn much from Sirianni's analysis and his thick descriptions of youth, neighborhood, and environmental civic engagement." --Archon Fung, Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University "Investing in Democracy is a pioneering work, that breaks new ground in patterns of governance, civic engagement, and the meaning of democracy for the 21st century. It will stand as a signal landmark at the turn of the century." --Harry C. Boyte, Director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota "In this breakthrough book, Carmen Sirianni has given us a rich portrait of the future of governance. It is a future in which government empowers individual citizens and stakeholders to roll up their sleeves to do the work of policy and address our challenges together. Recent events demand that we all contribute to building the future we want for America. As citizens, we have to change our attitude toward government. We are not consumers of government services. We can be partners in governance, and this book shows us how to get there." --Lisa Blomgren Bingham "It is an unlikely proposition that large centralized governments can support or promote civic engagement - that most local and self determining of all endeavors. Nonetheless, Carmen Sirianni has explored the frontiers of exemplary citizen-government engagement and has written this wonderfully useful and inspiring book for a new era of creative collaboration." --
"Investing in Democracy is a wonderful book that arrives at a critical time. Sirianni explains in lucid language how government can create an environment and ethos in which citizens work together solve the unprecedented challenges that Americans face. Citizens and public leaders will learn much from Sirianni's analysis and his thick descriptions of youth, neighborhood, and environmental civic engagement." Archon Fung, Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University |"Investing in Democracy is a pioneering work, that breaks new ground in patterns of governance, civic engagement, and the meaning of democracy for the 21st century. It will stand as a signal landmark at the turn of the century." Harry C. Boyte, Director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota |"In this breakthrough book, Carmen Sirianni has given us a rich portrait of the future of governance. It is a future in which government empowers individual citizens and stakeholders to roll up their sleeves to do the work of policy and address our challenges together. Recent events demand that we all contribute to building the future we want for America. As citizens, we have to change our attitude toward government. We are not consumers of government services. We can be partners in governance, and this book shows us how to get there." Lisa Blomgren Bingham |"It is an unlikely proposition that large centralized governments can support or promote civic engagement that most local and self determining of all endeavors. Nonetheless, Carmen Sirianni has explored the frontiers of exemplary citizen-government engagement and has written this wonderfully useful and inspiring book for a new era of creative collaboration." John McKnight, CoDirector, Asset Based Community Development InstituteNorthwestern University
