Democracy Reinvented - (Brookings / Ash Center Series, Innovative Governance in the) by Hollie Russon Gilman (Paperback)

Participatory Budgeting--the experiment in democracy that could redefine how public budgets are decided in the United States.

Democracy Reinvented is the first comprehensive academic treatment of participatory budgeting in the United States, situating it within a broader trend of civic technology and innovation. This global phenomenon, which has been called "revolutionary civics in action" by the New York Times, started in Brazil in 1989 but came to America only in 2009. Participatory budgeting empowers citizens to identify community needs, work with elected officials to craft budget proposals, and vote on how to spend public funds.

Democracy Reinvented places participatory budgeting within the larger discussion of the health of U.S. democracy and focuses on the enabling political and institutional conditions. Author and former White House policy adviser Hollie Russon Gilman presents theoretical insights, indepth case studies, and interviews to offer a compelling alternative to the current citizen disaffection and mistrust of government. She offers policy recommendations on how to tap online tools and other technological and civic innovations to promote more inclusive governance.

While most literature tends to focus on institutional changes without solutions, this book suggests practical ways to empower citizens to become change agents. Democracy Reinvented also includes a discussion on the challenges and opportunities that come with using digital tools to re-engage citizens in governance."

Review Quotes

With great empirical rigor, Democracy Reinvented sheds light on a surprising democratic innovation taking place around the world in community centers and church basements that is reinventing the meaning of citizenship, transforming the relationship between government and governed, and teaching us how to create more effective tools for governance. An important and persuasively crafted contribution to the field of both participatory democratic theory and practice.
--Beth Simone Noveck, Jerry M. Hultin Global Network Professor, New York University, and Director, The Governance Lab

Democracy Reinvented pushes past the hype that so often surrounds civic technology and participatory democracy to describe experiments that have actually worked and to give us a larger framework and vocabulary for civic engagement in the digital age. A book for political scientists and political campaigners alike.
--Anne-Marie Slaughter, President and CEO, New America

Civic participation and innovation is occurring through small and larger initiatives all over the United States and around the world through the use of new technology. This timely book offers important insight on this phenomena and reveals its potential and impact.
--Merit E. Janow, Dean, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University

About the Author