10 Steps to Repair American Democracy
By Steven Hill
With a foreword by Hendrik Hertzberg
Published by PoliPointPress
196 Pages
Publication Date 6/05
ISBN: 0-9760621-5-1
$12.95, soft cover
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“We know that American democracy is being run over a cliff — choice-less elections, screwy voting machines, brain-dead political debate, unresponsive government, etc. What’s a citizen to do? Here, finally, is the plan.”
—Jim Hightower, columnist and author of Let’s Stop Beating Around the Bush
“Steven Hill’s 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy is as practical as it is insightful, offering innovative ways to fix our broken political system. It’s an inspiring blueprint for reclaiming America. Read it, roll up your sleeves, and get to work.”
—Arianna Huffington, political commentator, and bestselling author of Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining America
Choiceless elections. Suspicious voting equipment. Partisan election officials. Superficial political debate. American democracy is suffering through its worst crises in generations, and most Americans don’t know what to do about it. Here, finally, is the plan - 10 steps to repair American democracy.
In his inspiring blueprint for renewing America, Hill makes a stirring call for national election standards, nonpartisan election officials, a voting day holiday, and other repairs to the nuts and bolts of our system. He takes it a step further, calling for the end of winner-take-all elections, fairer representation in the U.S. Senate, universal voter registration, public financing of elections, free air time for candidates, and new media regulations that will open up our politics and broaden political debate.
Drawing upon the author’s 20 years of democracy advocacy, scholarship, and two previous books, 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy outlines the looming problems with American elections and proposes ten specific reforms to reinvigorate our republic. It also includes a trenchant foreword by Hendrik Hertzberg, senior editor at The New Yorker.
Steven Hill is the Director of the Political Reform Program of the New America Foundation and co-founder of the Center for Voting and Democracy. His articles and commentaries have appeared in dozens of newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, The Nation, Ms., Salon.com, and American Prospect.
His previous book, Fixing Elections: The Failure of America’s Winner Take All Politics, has been called by author Michael Lind “the most important book on American democracy that has come out in many years.” He has lectured widely in the United States and Europe, and has appeared on C-SPAN, Fox News, National Public Radio, and numerous radio and television programs across the nation and in Europe.
In 2004, he managed the successful campaign to pass instant runoff voting for Board of Supervisors elections in San Francisco. “More recently, he also helped organize the successful effort to establish public financing for the city’s mayoral campaigns.
