What Now? A Short Review of The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding
Should I Read This: Yes, though if you are a political junkie you might be better off gifting it to one who is not.
Book Seller Link (non-affiliate, but I do know the owner): The Right of the People a book by Osita Nwanevu - Bookshop.org US
Author’s Website: Nwanevu.
Okay, so I probably gave away the punch line the Should I Read This section, but The Right of the People by Osita Nwanevu is a really well done book. It’s primary, though not only flaw (see below) is that it covers ground that most political obsessives — which many of my readers likely count themselves — already know. But it covers that ground in very entertaining, and enlightening, fashion.
Nwanevu is an exceptional writer. Reading this was never a chore, unlike many political tomes. he does not get bogged down in jargon, and any terms that he does have to use are explained quickly and completely. He has a knack for making ideas easy to understand without compromising their complexity. More importantly, to me, he never, ever argues against straw men. He does a good job of tackling the best version of the arguments he is debating. That makes the book feel like an honest conversation, and makes Nwanevu earn his conclusions. Which he almost alway’s does.
Nwanevu’s brief is that democracy is fundamentally broken in the United States and that only a complete reimagining of our systems can restore it. As I said, not new ground to anyone who has been paying attention to modern US politics, but also, as I said, a very well done argument for the brief. Nwanevu is complete in his diagnosis, going through how the structure of the Congress, the Supreme Court, how we run elections, and how we fund elections, are all contributing factors to the decline of democracy in this country. Again, not new information but also again, extremely well presented and very convincing.
He also does a nice job of laying out what a democracy actually should be, diving head firs tin the conflicts inherent between allowing majorities to govern, the lure of power, and the need to preserve individual rights in the face of both. Not, as I am sure you saw coming, a new argument. But one that feels more necessary than ever given how far don the rabbit hole of personal authoritarianism we have fallen. It is the clearest argument in defense of the concept of liberal democracy I have seen in a long time.
His solution sections is somewhat weaker, but only in comparison. I agree with many of his proposed solutions, believe that some don’t go far enough, and worry that some require changing the Constitution, something that almost certainly will not happen in my lifetime. Nwanevu does do something near and dear to my heart: discussing the absolute requirement that the economy be placed under democratic control. And he is not only talking about the regulation of the economy at large, but also the empowering of people within firms. After all, if most of us spend most of our waking hours living under a non-democratic power structure, what doers that mean for our attachment and understanding of democracy in our politics?
Overall, this is a well written, thoughtful, and entertaining book about a crisis that most of us are already aware of. It covers very little new, but there is value in having the arguments, problems, and solutions laid out in such a clear and compelling fashion. If you are too much of a political obsessive to feel this is something you need to read right now, give it to one of your more well-adjusted friends or family members. It wIll likely be eye-opening for them, and Nwanevu will almost certainly convert them to the side of defending democracy via institutional change. And we certainly need more people supporting that.
Crossposted soon at Bookstack.