Challenges of Ordinary Democracy(English, Paperback, Tracy Karen)

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Challenges of Ordinary Democracy(English, Paperback, Tracy Karen) is written by Tracy Karen and published by Pennsylvania State University Press. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 0271036907 (ISBN 10) and 9780271036908 (ISBN 13).

Is there any place in America where passionate debate plays a more vital role in democratic discourse than local school board meetings? Karen Tracy conducted a thirty-five-month study of the board meetings of the Boulder Valley School District between 1996 and 1999 to analyze just how democracy operates in practice. In Challenges of Ordinary Democracy, she reveals the major role that emotion plays in real-life debate and discerns value in what might easily be seen as negative forms of discourse-voicing platitudes, making contradictory assertions, arguing over a document's wording, speaking angrily, attacking a person's character. By illuminating this one arena of "ordinary democracy," Tracy hopes to engender a new appreciation for how what she calls "reasonable hostility" can be a desirable ideal of communication for debating public policy issues.