The essence of democracy is popular sovereignty. The people rule. In the
United States, citizens exercise this right through elected officials
who they believe will best represent their own values and interests. But
are those interests and values always being followed? Authors Michael B.
Berkman and Eric Plutzer provide the first systematic examination of the
extent to which the governments closest to the American public--its
10,000-plus local school boards--respond to the wishes of the majority.
Ten Thousand Democracies begins with a look at educational reforms
from the Progressive era in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
through the civil rights movement and ending with Pennsylvania's 2004
tax relief measure. Berkman and Plutzer explore what factors determine
education spending levels in school districts, including the effects of
public opinion, the nature of local political institutions, and the
roles played by special interests. The authors show how board members
are selected, how well the boards represent minorities, whether the
public can bypass the board through referenda, and how the schools are
financed. By providing an innovative statistical portrait that combines
public opinion data with Census data for these school districts, the
authors answer questions central to democratic control of our schools:
how responsive are school boards to their public and when? How powerful
are such special interests such as teachers' unions and senior citizens?
By using the lens of America's public school districts to examine the
workings of democracy, Ten Thousand Democracies offers new insight not
only into the forces shaping local education policy but also how
democratic institutions may function throughout all levels of
government.
