Genre: Non-Fiction
Description:
“The Mechanics of Changing the World argues that war,
inequality and climate
change are insoluble within our current system of government. That
they will only
be curable at the level of causes: the level of democratic design.
‘Third draft democracy’ is a suite of interlocking reforms to
decontaminate politics,
decentralise information, and democratise decision-making. It’s a
natural evolution
of the first (Greek) and second (Euro-American) ‘drafts’ of the
democratic experiment.
The last half-century has seen the antiwar movement, Perestroika,
Tiananmen,
Occupy, and the Arab Spring: great activism, great ideals, strong
popular support.
Yet none of these built anything lasting.
One-off campaigns—whether against lopsided trade deals, poverty or
surveillance—
are fragile. Changing the world needs more than inspired
troubleshooting. It needs
architecture”
Author:
“John Macgregor has won national awards for literature and
investigative journalism, managed aid projects in Cambodia, and wrote the story
development for the movie Shine. From Washington, Rangoon and occupied East
Timor, he has reported on science, politics, corruption and slavery for The
New York Times, New Scientist and The Sydney Morning Herald.”
Appraisal:
The author has an interesting take on governments in the world today
that are democratic. He makes a strong case that some of the world’s issues
aren’t likely to get resolved until the form of government is reformed. Note
that the issues the author is thinking of could, in some cases lead to
extinction of life on Earth (climate change or war, if it goes nuclear). Or the
third item, inequality, continuing in its current direction could leave us
wishing we’d been wiped out.
The author does an excellent job explaining the history of democracy,
evolving from what he calls first draft democracy into what we have in many
countries today, that he calls second draft. He explains where the weaknesses
in the current systems are. He makes the case for why tweaking these existing
systems isn’t going to fix things well enough to work. He then explains what
would work, why it lays the foundation for a political system that will work
better and doesn’t have the fatal flaws the current systems do.
One thing that I found interesting early on was the author said that
no reader was going to agree with everything he says and indicates that hoping
for that would “be at odds with the spirit of the book.” He also indicates that
his ideas are sometimes going to be things that we would perceive as being on
the left of the political spectrum and other times on the right of the
spectrum, which was correct. But I found myself not objecting to many of his
suggestions that weren’t in sync with my current political leanings. He argues
that much political conflict in today’s world happens for reasons that might
not be what we perceive as their cause.
Last, the author doesn’t throw out things he claims are facts that
many would question and just expect the reader to take his word for it. There
are over 1,500 footnotes with each footnote providing a link to a source
backing up his claim, so if you want to dig deeper, he’ll help you start down
that rabbit hole. I’d recommend this book to anyone with any interest in
politics (and if you aren’t interested, you should be).
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
FYI:
The author specifically mentions that the language he uses in the book
is “a mix of the Australian, American and British dialects” of English. That
seemed accurate.
Format/Typo
Issues:
My review is based on a pre-release copy of the book, so I can’t gauge
the final product in this area.
Rating: ****
Four Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count: 120-125,000 words
