Toward an Ethic of Citizenship

About the Book

The idea for this book arose out of a little known political scandal, known as "phonegate", that occurred in Minnesota in the early 1990's in which a number of legislators were found to have been abusing their phone privileges. The hubris of the legislature in response to the discovery of this abuse not only made me rather angry, but, since I had been called for jury duty the year before, gave me the idea that service in the legislature ought to be a duty of citizenship like jury duty. Although the idea of the citizen legislature goes back to Aristotle, serious consideration of it raises the question of what is meant by citizenship and representation. This book addresses that question. It is an attempt to develop a model of citizenship in which representation is simultaneously a fundamental right and the highest obligation. After developing these ideas at a rather high level of abstraction, the book concludes with a proposed constitutional amendment for the State of Minnesota to illustrate how the model will work in practice.

About the Author

The author was educated at Amherst College and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines and has traveled rather extensively. Currently he is employed with the State of Minnesota where he served in risk management before moving into child support enforcement. Other than writing and thinking about political and social ideas, his interests include canoeing, cross country skiing, bicycling, camping, traveling, cultural activities, and reading. Some of his spare time is spent at a cabin he built outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of northern Minnesota. By choice he has no children and resides in Stillwater, MN with his non-spousal soul mate and two cats.