{"product_id":"a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it-structural-case-for-saving-american-democracy-paperback","title":"A Republic, If You Can Keep It: Structural Case for Saving American Democracy - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eA. Richard Vial\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"A republic - if you can keep it.\"\u003c\/strong\u003e When Benjamin Franklin left the Constitutional Convention, a bystander asked what kind of government the delegates had made. Two centuries on, the keeping has grown precarious - and this book argues the real threat is not the one most reformers name.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe danger is not faction. James Madison knew faction was inevitable, woven into human nature, and he built a Constitution to channel it. The danger is what came after: the political party - an institution the framers never designed for - which quietly captured the civic loyalty the Constitution meant to direct toward its own institutions. Parties don't merely express our divisions. They aggregate them, harden them, and stand between citizens and the structures built to represent them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on Nebraska's century-old nonpartisan legislature as living proof that another design is possible, A. Richard Vial - retired attorney, former state legislator, and former Deputy Secretary of State - makes the structural case for repair: nonpartisan elections, better methods of counting the public will, and a civic attention equal to the work of self-government.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eClear-eyed, historically grounded, and addressed to citizens rather than partisans, \u003cem\u003eA Republic, If You Can Keep It\u003c\/em\u003e asks the question a free people can never stop answering - \u003cstrong\u003ehow do you keep what you were given?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 252\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.53 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 17, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46548500512812,"sku":"9798997145408","price":19.57,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/6260\/8940\/files\/G0VoEaGsCk9798997145408.webp?v=1793523090","url":"https:\/\/littleredgeneralstore.com\/products\/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it-structural-case-for-saving-american-democracy-paperback","provider":"Little Red General Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}