London: Rowman and Littlefield International, 2019. 93 pp.

For a growing number of people, democracy has become synonymous with broken promises and abandoned commitments. As a result, ordinary men and women of all political persuasions are demanding transformations, not just to government policies, but to the methods of governance themselves. They realize that in the periods between general elections, they have great difficulty having their voices heard, because they have no formal role in constructing political agendas.

This book focuses on one way to address this problem, by establishing a continual dialogue between individuals and their governments, hence forcing politicians to constantly pay attention to “the people.” The author argues for the creation of permanent citizens’ assemblies, which would be charged with examining issues of public concern and giving advice to governments. For those troubled by our current democratic impasse, this book will give hope that practical reforms are possible and that new institutions can become effective components of governance in nations across the globe.

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This is a timely book with a constructive solution to the problems that are hounding representative governments worldwide. Larry Patriquin’s proposal is sensible and workable, yet innovative. He offers a perfectly-reasonable but exciting reform that might just be the catalyst that is needed to rescue electoral democracy from its current malaise.

Lyn Carson
Research Director for the newDemocracy Foundation and former
Professor in Applied Politics at the University of Sydney Business School