POLS 123 Lecture Notes - Blackboard, Madeleine M. Kunin, Town Meeting

• School: University of Vermont
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLS 123
• Professor: Frank Bryan

Document Summary

Town meeting: town"s role in vermont politics, origin of vermont towns, real voter"s paradox: americans vote even though they can"t make a difference anyways, most important determining factor in voter turnout is rain. Republicans always pray for rain: your vote is 1/n (n=number of other votes) In town meeting, this makes a significantly greater impact than in a presidential election. Number and size of small towns: home rule legislation, constitutional/statutory protection of county protection of towns, each town had a legislator in a unicameral house, reapportionment in the 1960"s undoes this. Rampant misuse of the term town meeting : now more commonly corrected by term town hall . Information you should collect at public meetings you attend in your town: when the meeting begins and ends. Description of people who speak and the # of article they speak on. (grid) Doesn"t cost anything to the citizen lot of money spent urging citizens to participate.