Finally, a book that offers a practical yet well-researched guide for
practitioners seeking to hone the way they show up in citizen space. At
a time when public trust in institutions is at its lowest, expectations
of those institutions to make people well, knowledgeable, and secure are
rapidly increasing. These expectations are unrealistic, causing
disenchantment and disengagement among citizens and increasing levels of
burnout among many professionals. Rekindling Democracy is not just a
practical guide; it goes further in setting out a manifesto for a more
equitable social contract to address these issues. Rekindling Democracy
argues convincingly that industrialized countries are suffering through
a democratic inversion, where the doctor is assumed to be the primary
producer of health, the teacher of education, the police officer of
safety, and the politician of democracy. Through just the right blend of
storytelling, research, and original ideas, Russell argues instead that
in a functioning democracy the role of the professionals ought to be
defined as that which happens after the important work of citizens is
done. The primary role of the twenty-first-century practitioner
therefore is not a deliverer of top-down services, but a precipitator of
more active citizenship and community building.
