Democracy Works: A Rejoinder

• Published date: 01 March 2012
• Date: 01 March 2012
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2011.02541.x

308 Public Administration Review • March | April 2012

 e book acknowledges the concomitant institutional

inequalities of gender and sexuality, race and ethnic-

ity, class, and global location, which are embedded in

“glocalized” relations.  e contributors to Democracy

Works collectively show that diverse action groups and

movements rely heavily on institutional change and

civil societal reconstruction strategies, even though

particular strategic forms and tactics may appear to be

very dif‌f erent (5).

 e contributions of the book’s 19 chapters are

written by a multicultural, transnational grouping of

intellectual activists who have been involved in demo-

cratic projects to reconnect people in the global North

and South and initiate alternative relations in dif‌f erent

countries and on dif‌f erent continents.  ese contri-

butions bring a rich tapestry to the global citizenry’s

democratic engagement in change.

 e book is sequenced logically in the way the chap-

ters are arranged into four parts. Putting together such

diverse case studies and theoretical underpinnings

is no easy feat.  e editors are commended for the

sterling ef‌f ort. Part I has four chapters on “Examin-

ing  eory, History, Methodology, and Action.” Part

II, “Changing the Intersecting Global Institutions

of Firm, Market, State, Household, ‘Race,’ Class,

Gender/Sexuality/Age, and Global South/North,”

has six chapters. Part III examines “Rebuilding Civil

Society, Reclaiming the Civil Commons” in eight

chapters. Part IV is the conclusion and has only

one chapter, “Changing Intersecting Institutions,

Torry D. Dickinson, Terrie A. Becerra, and Summer

B. C. Lewis, Democracy Works: Joining  eory

and Action to Foster Global Change (Boulder,

CO: Paradigm, 2008). 272 pp. $115.00 (cloth):

ISBN 9781594516023; $43.95 (paper), ISBN:

9781594516030.

The political map of the world, now more than

ever, is marked by the presence of democracy

(Diamond 1999; Croissant and Merkel 2004).

 e “waves of democratization” witnessed so far bear

ample testimony to this. Democracy is a virtue that all

societies aspire toward. Morlino (2004) argues that a

good democracy is one in which citizens, associations,

and communities enjoy at least a moderate level of

liberty and equality. In the book reviewed here, Torry

Dickinson, Terrie A. Becerra, and Summer Lewis posit

that “[a]s the world is being shaken by innumerable

forces, some violent and unseen, local groups and

diverse global networks extend and test the meaning

of democracy by reconstructing society through new

belief-related, personal, cultural, social, political, and

economic practices ” (3).

Democracy Works is an interesting piece of work, as it

considers how democratic social groups have joined

theory and action to bring about change.  e book

attempts to place these experiences within a common

framework to see what we can learn about chang-

ing the world. It explores how we can develop new

action-informed theories and strategies that may

facilitate global change (4).

Democracy Works: A Rejoinder

Sonia M. Ospina and Rogan Kersh, Editors

David Mandiyanike

University of Botswana, Botswana

David Mandiyanike is lecturer in

public administration and political science

at the University of Botswana. His

main interests are governance, capacity

building, gender mainstreaming, and the

participation of women in politics and

decision making.

E-mail: ndix68@hotmail.com

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 72, Iss. 2, pp. 308–309. © 2012 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.111/j.1540-6210.2011.02541.x.