On The Front Porch

Jason Peters has a post on the time-travelling Jonathan Swift to warm the heart of every Bolingbrokean. I may have something to add later about the evils of the “projecting” spirit in our own time.

Allan Carlson has an introductory post on agrarianism.

Here is Bill Kauffman on Frank Bryan, Vermont and town meetings, originally published in TAC. This is a sample:

Bryan’s central finding is that “Real democracy works better in small places—dramatically better.” The smaller the town, the higher the percentage of citizens who participate in town meeting. The only other variable with any potency is the presence of controversial items on the agenda. If town meeting is waning, as pulseless technocrats often charge, it is because “Vermont towns have steadily been losing the authority to deal with controversial issues.” Voting up or down on the purchase of a snowplow is fine, but for grassroots democracy to thrive, we must restore to small places control over education, welfare, and economic regulation.

Keep checking in over there, as there will be much more to read.