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Individualism --- Political participation --- Social movements --- Individualisme --- Participation politique --- Mouvements sociaux --- United States --- Etats-Unis --- Social policy --- Politique sociale --- Individualism - United States. --- Political participation - United States. --- Social movements - United States.

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Community organization --- Political participation --- Working class --- Social change --- Organisation communautaire --- Participation politique --- Travailleurs --- Changement social --- History --- Political activity --- Histoire --- Activité politique --- Manifestation --- --États-Unis --- --Militarism --- Égalité --- --Manifestation --- --Political participation --- Activité politique --- Manifestations --- Militantisme --- Participation sociale --- Militarism - United States --- Political participation - United States - History - 21st century --- Working class - Political activity - United States --- Community organization - United States - History - 21st century --- Political participation - United States - History - 20th century --- Community organization - United States - History - 20th century --- États-Unis --- Militarism

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Freedom Is an Endless Meeting offers vivid portraits of American experiments in participatory democracy throughout the twentieth century. Drawing on meticulous research and more than one hundred interviews with activists, Francesca Polletta challenges the conventional wisdom that participatory democracy is worthy in purpose but unworkable in practice. Instead, she shows that social movements have often used bottom-up decision making as a powerful tool for political change. Polletta traces the history of democracy in early labor struggles and pre-World War II pacifism, in the civil rights, new left, and women's liberation movements of the sixties and seventies, and in today's faith-based organizing and anti-corporate globalization campaigns. In the process, she uncovers neglected sources of democratic inspiration-Depression-era labor educators and Mississippi voting registration workers, among them-as well as practical strategies of social protest. But Freedom Is an Endless Meeting also highlights the obstacles that arise when activists model their democracies after familiar nonpolitical relationships such as friendship, tutelage, and religious fellowship. Doing so has brought into their deliberations the trust, respect, and caring typical of those relationships. But it has also fostered values that run counter to democracy, such as exclusivity and an aversion to rules, and these have been the fault lines around which participatory democracies have often splintered. Indeed, Polletta attributes the fragility of the form less to its basic inefficiency or inequity than to the gaps between activists' democratic commitments and the cultural models on which they have depended to enact those commitments. The challenge, she concludes, is to forge new kinds of democratic relationships, ones that balance trust with accountability, respect with openness to disagreement, and caring with inclusiveness. For anyone concerned about the prospects for democracy in America, Freedom Is an Endless Meeting will offer abundant historical, theoretical, and practical insights. "This is an excellent study of activist politics in the United States over the past century. . . . Assiduously researched, impressively informed by a great number of thoughtful interviews with key members of American social movements, and deeply engaged with its subject matter, the book is likely to become a key text in the study of grass-roots democracy in America."-Kate Fullbrook, Times Literary Supplement "Polletta's portrayal challenges the common assumption that morality and strategy are incompatible, that those who aim at winning must compromise principle while those who insist on morality are destined to be ineffective. . . . Rather than dwell on trying to explain the decline of 60s movements, Polletta shows how participatory democracy has become the guiding framework for many of today's activists."-Richard Flacks, Los Angeles Times Book Review "In Freedom Is an Endless Meeting, Francesca Polletta has produced a remarkable work of historical sociology. . . . She provides the fullest theoretical work of historical sociology. . . . She provides the fullest theoretical picture of participatory democracy, rich with nuance, ambiguity, and irony, that this reviewer has yet seen. . . . This wise book should be studied closely by both academics and by social change activists."-Stewart Burns, Journal of American History

Social movements --- Community organization --- Political participation --- Group decision making --- Collective decision making --- Decision-making, Group --- Decision making --- Social movements - United States --- Community organization - United States --- Political participation - United States --- Group decision-making - United States --- Mouvements sociaux --- Organisation communautaire --- Participation politique --- Décision de groupe --- Group decision-making

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"Much has been written about the historic nature of the Obama campaign. The multi-year, multi-billion dollar operation elected the nation's first black president, raised and spent more money than any other election effort in history, and built the most sophisticated voter targeting technology ever before used on a national campaign. But what is missing from these accounts is an understanding of how Obama for America organized its formidable army of 2.2 million volunteers -- over eight times the number of people who volunteered for democratic candidates in 2004. Unlike previous field campaigns that drew their power from staff, consultants, and paid canvassers, the Obama campaign's capacity came from unpaid local citizens who took responsibility for organizing their own neighborhoods months--and even years--in advance of election day. In so doing, Groundbreakers argues, the campaign enlisted citizens in the often unglamorous but necessary work of practicing democracy. Hahrie Han and Elizabeth McKenna argue that the legacy of Obama for America is a transformation of the traditional models of field campaigning. Groundbreakers makes the case that the Obama ground game was revolutionary in two regards not captured in previous accounts. First, the campaign piloted and scaled an alternative model of field campaigning that built the power of a community at the same time that it organized it. Second, the Obama campaign changed the individuals who were a part of it, turning them into leaders. Groundbreakers proves that presidential campaigns are still about more than clicks, big data and money, and that one of the most important ways that a campaign develops its capacity is by investing in its human resources"--

POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Process / Elections. --- POLITICAL SCIENCE / Government / National. --- Presidents --- Political campaigns --- Political participation --- Présidents --- Campagnes électorales --- Participation politique --- Election --- Obama, Barack. --- United States --- Etats-Unis --- Politics and government. --- Politique et gouvernement --- Présidents --- Campagnes électorales --- 2008 --- 2012 --- Obama, Barack --- Politics and government --- Obama, Barack, 1961 --- -Political participation --- Political campaigns -- United States. --- Political participation -- United States. --- Presidents -- United States -- Election -- 2008. --- Presidents -- United States -- Election -- 2012. --- United States -- Politics and government. --- -Obama, Barack.

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Political participation --- Communication in politics --- Democracy --- Technology --- Participation politique --- Communication politique --- Démocratie --- Technologie --- Social aspects --- Aspect social --- Democracy. --- -Democracy --- -Technology --- -Applied science --- Arts, Useful --- Science, Applied --- Useful arts --- Science --- Industrial arts --- Material culture --- Citizen participation --- Community action --- Community involvement --- Community participation --- Involvement, Community --- Mass political behavior --- Participation, Citizen --- Participation, Community --- Participation, Political --- Political activity --- Political behavior --- Political rights --- Social participation --- Political activists --- Politics, Practical --- Self-government --- Political science --- Equality --- Representative government and representation --- Republics --- Political communication --- -Communication in politics --- -Social aspects --- -Political participation --- Démocratie --- Political participation - United States. --- Communication in politics - United States. --- Technology - Social aspects - United States.