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A New American Story of Citizenship, the Economy, and the Role of Government
Sasquatch Books
December 2011
On Sale: December 13, 2011
192 pages ISBN: 1570618232 EAN: 9781570618239 Kindle: B0061S3UMA Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Political | Non-Fiction
American democracy is informed by the 18th century’s most
cutting edge thinking on society, economics, and government.
We’ve learned some things in the intervening 230 years about
self interest, social behaviors, and how the world works.
Now, authors Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer argue that some
fundamental assumptions about citizenship, society,
economics, and government need updating. For many years the
dominant metaphor for understanding markets and government
has been the machine. Liu and Hanauer view democracy not as
a machine, but as a garden. A successful garden functions
according to the inexorable tendencies of nature, but it
also requires goals, regular tending, and an understanding
of connected ecosystems. The latest ideas from science,
social science, and economics—the cutting-edge ideas of
today--generate these simple but revolutionary ideas: True self interest is mutual interest. (Society, it turns
out, is an ecosystem that is healthiest when we take care of
the whole.) Society becomes how we behave. (The model of citizenship
depends on contagious behavior, hence positive behavior
begets positive behavior.) We’re all better off when we’re all better off. (The economy
is not an efficient machine. It’s an effective garden that
need tending. Adjust the definition of wealth to society
creating solutions for all.) Government should be about the big what and the little how.
(Government should establish the ideas and the goals, and
then let the people find the solutions of how to make it
happen.) Freedom is responsibility. (True freedom is not about living
some variant of libertarianism but rather an active
cooperation a part of a big whole society; freedom costs a
little freedom.) The Gardens of Democracy is an optimistic, provocative, and
timely summons to improve our role as citizens in a
democratic society.
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