Democracy: A User's Guide

THEY SAY WE LIVE IN A DEMOCRACY. WE ARE FREE AND WE SHOULD BE GRATEFUL.

But just how "Free" are we? How democratic are our so-called "Democracies"?

Is it enough to simply elect our leaders and sit back, helpless, as they rule over us like dictators? What good is selecting our politicians, if we cannot control our media, police or soldiers? If we must blindly follow our teachers' and bosses' commands, whilst at school and in the workplace, is it not a little naïve to believe that we are the masters of our own destinies? And if our resources are controlled by a tiny cabal of plutocrats, bankers and corporations; can we honestly say that our economies are being run for us?

Could things not be a little bit more, well, democratic?

Indeed they can! “Democracy: A User's Guide” shows us how...

Within the pages of this story-filled book, we shall visit Summerhill, a democratic school in the east of England, before stopping off in Brazil to check out Semco, where workplace democracy is the name of the game. We will travel to Rojava, to explore life in a democratic army, and head to Spain, to see why Podemos is giving liquid democracy a go. We shall travel back in time, to see democracy at work in hunter-gatherer societies, tribal confederacies, the guilds and on the commons. We will consider the case for participatory budgeting, deliberative democracy, collaborative hiring, community currencies, peer-to-peer lending, and much much more.

The message is clear and concise: Democracy does not have to be a pipe dream. We have all the tools we need to rule ourselves.

THIS IS AN ABSOLUTELY, BRAND NEW BOOK. NO-ONE ELSE HAS REVIEWED IT YET!

But here is some praise for Joss Sheldon's previous books...

"The personalities in 'Money Power Love' are shaped by the world around them, turning good and bad as circumstances dictate; showing us their strengths, and showing us their frailties. It's breath-taking, literally, because it touches upon the very core of our humanity."

THE HUFFINGTON POST

"Not so much a novel, more an extended allegory on love trumping power and money, Joss Sheldon's tale also gives us the birth of banking and a potted history of the first half of the nineteenth century - all with wit and humour."

THE TRIBUNE

"Adventures come thick and fast... in picaresque fashion... (It) deals with matters of consequence... (with) a message worth dwelling on."

SCOTTISH LEFT REVIEW

"It's a work of art. Sheldon creates a world in which every scent is pronounced and every scene is painted with exquisite colour. It's a tale of personalities, which explores the very extremities of human behaviour, and it's a lesson from history which takes the reader from the heart of London to the furthest reaches of the British Empire. Moreover, it's a lesson that's more relevant today than ever before."

PAK ASIA TIMES

"One of those 'unputdownable' novels. From the outset it is clear that this fictitious story, based on real life events, has an underlying moral message."

THE AVENGER

"The Little Voice is radical, to say the least. But Sheldon's style is warm, almost whimsical at times, and this means that even the most politically uninitiated reader will understand what he's trying to say... If the book was marked by the education system Sheldon is rebelling against, it would be an 'A*. Top notch'."

The Canary

"It inspires hope and fear,optimism and depression. Then it analyses those emotions. It explains the pressures we all experience from time to time... It's probably the most thought-provoking novel of 2016."

The Huffington Post

"The Little Voice takes the world we live in, the world we take for granted, and makes us think about it in a whole new way... It makes the reader ask themselves all the questions they've been bottling up and avoiding. And that, in itself, is a pretty remarkable feat."

Buzzfeed

"At times, it will make you feel uncomfortable. It's certainly not "pop-lit". But it is magnificent. It is a compelling rhapsody of rhyme and reason."

Global Education Network

"Sheldon has a talent for observing aspects of society and mirroring them back to readers in a thought-provoking way."

Literary Flits

"I spent about four hours this evening reading (and re-reading) passages in this book because they really spoke to me. I can tell you right now, I'm going to read it again tomorrow because I need to hear them again, and I think you do too."

In Our Spare Time

"Occupied follows the lives of four main characters; a refugee, native, settler and economic migrant, all of whom are affected by these divisions. At their core, each character is the same; they all face the same challenges, react in the same ways, and feel the same emotions. But their different labels and alternative backgrounds provide barriers which stop them from ever uniting.

It would be easy to focus on this theme, which runs through Occupied. But to do so would be to miss the artistry of the novel; the characters which often remind us of ourselves, the scenery which bursts into life, and the subplots which fill every page. Occupied is a story of individual hope against collective despair, and with that comes a certain sense of optimism; a determination to be the best you can. The four main characters have to battle against the trauma of forced marriages, displacement and physical abuse, but they become stronger as a result of experiencing such hardships."

AXS

"The way it was written meant that even if someone has no pre-existing knowledge of Palestine, the Kurdish question and Tibet, they would have still enjoyed it and still understood the reasoning behind the anti-colonial and anti-capitalist sentiments behind the book."

Middle East Monitor

"Occupied is a candid and disquieting look at the idea of freedom and its limits around the world."

Free Tibet