School Board member Paul Ferson contemplates "gut wrenching" budget cuts at Dorset, Vermont Town Meeting, March 1998 Photo: Sabina Haskell Latour, courtesy Bennington Banner
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The Town Meeting
Taking up every topic under the sun, the
Vermont Town Meeting is, according to University of Vermont
Political Science Professor Frank Bryan, truly "the Secret
Flame of Democracy." Town meeting topics range from delinquent
property taxes, vital statistics (marriages and births), and
budgets for administration, computers, and even the printing
of the town report. According to some, town meetings are
"alive, but troubled." In their view, town meetings are mostly
attended by those who are self-employed, retired, or otherwise
not working at regular daytime jobs, and thus cannot
accurately reflect the views of the majority of the town's
citizens. According to their critics, town meetings don't work
and are beset by special interests and bureaucracy. They say
that American society has grown too large and complex for
democratic institutions to function well, even at the level of
a small New England town. This project examines the current
state of the town meeting and its viability.
Included in the project documentation are a written
report; photographs; periodical clippings; a 1996 Annual Report for
Worcester, Vermont; a Vermont Public Television video entitled Town Meeting: A Day in the Life; and an audiotape produced
by the Vermont Folklife Center entitled "Vermonters Talk About Town
Meeting."
Originally submitted by: Patrick J. Leahy, Senator James M. Jeffords, Senator & Bernard Sanders, Representative (At Large).
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The Local Legacies project provides a "snapshot" of American Culture as it was expressed in spring of 2000. Consequently, it is not being updated with new or revised information with the exception of "Related Website" links.
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