The Mechanics of Changing the World: Political Architecture to Roll Back State & Corporate Power
by John Macgregor
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Pub Date 10 Aug 2024 | Archive Date 16 Nov 2024
ARC provided by Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op | Worldwork Press
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Description
Perestroika, Tiananmen, the Arab Spring, Occupy. Great ideals—yet none built anything lasting. Changing the world needs more than inspired troubleshooting. It needs architecture.
The book argues that:
· Our daily politics is a kind of neurosis—a 'displacement activity'—substituting for the system redesign that can resolve our crises. War, inequality and environmental overshoot are insoluble within the current framework.
· Power is deployed more adroitly, more fairly and more safely when it is dispersed.
· For a well-functioning society, we need not to swing right or left: we require a political system by which informed majorities can craft a policy mosaic.
· Our present, inefficient form of democracy is likely to be replaced by authoritarianism, which is increasingly efficient. Reinventing democracy is a condition for its survival.
War, inequality & environmental breakdown will only be curable at the level of causes: the level of democratic design: One-off campaigns are fragile: so ‘third draft democracy’ is a suite of interlocking reforms to decontaminate politics, decentralize information & democratize decision-making. It’s a natural evolution of the first (Greek) & second (Euro-American) ‘drafts’ of the democratic experiment.
We know much more about human nature than we did in 1789. We’ve learned we’re an egalitarian species, and are good at collective decision-making. We hate rigged rules and biased information. We’re naturals at social harmony. We know about evolution. It’s way past time this knowledge was reflected in our national constitutions. Time turns a constitution into a Pandora’s box—releasing ‘plagues’ such as bought politics and captured information. We’re forever going after the plagues: our attention should be on the box.
- John Macgregor
Advance Praise
A formidable effort, very learned and extremely wide-ranging. It has certain family resemblances to The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow, Yuval Noah Harari's three volumes, and books by Steven Pinker and Jared Diamond.
- Barry Jones, global best-selling author, former Minister for Science & president of the Australian Labor Party
I've never read anything like it. It explains so much (just about everything, really) about the present sorry state of human affairs. And it has put politics into a manageable perspective for me. I sense, at last, that there is a way out of the straightjacket we have traded our freedom for.
i am astonished that his conclusions haven't been brought together before this. i am also astonished that the idea of re-designing democracy has never been raised.
- Ross Roache
I’m impressed by how he presented his thesis in a non-partisan tone. He has chosen quotes and examples that demonstrate the core issues are trans-partisan, including the capture of government by corporate and plutocratic actors.
- Major Mark Harris, PhD, knowledge analyst, US Air Force
Fascinating and inspiring. I agree with the energising and unifying potential of the idea of a new constitution, addressing the problems he so clearly describes. My hope is that someone with the talents of a demagogue or an advertising guru will catch on and help the idea spread.
- Dr David Erdal, CEO, evolutionary psychologist & author
I was about halfway through when I realised how important this book is.
It is a manual to build a prototype of a new democratic revolution. When it happens (and I believe it will in one form or another) it will bring with it new problems, but not insurmountable ones, because written into the design is a way to address them.
It's rare to find a book that gives a perfect voice to your own half-baked thoughts… Author John Macgregor lays out in exhaustive and persuasive detail why our current democracies aren't fit for purpose and identifies the four main reasons why, which become the central pillars in what he calls 'Third Draft Democracy.' (The first draft was democracy's origins in Athens in the 4th century BC, the second was via the intellectual revolutions of the 18th century Enlightenment.)
The Mechanics of Changing the World is extremely well-written. It's not an anarchist rant but a carefully considered political treatise, that is not about politics at all, but how to go beyond it. It has the precision of an academic work but in entirely readable prose, driven by a measured passion for genuine, realisable change. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the future of democracy.
- Tony Cartledge on Reedsy
Marketing Plan
John Macgregor has won national awards for literature and investigative journalism, manages 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.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9780645948318 |
| PRICE | US$9.99 (USD) |
