Overview

'When a renowned constitutional scholar explains why the law is not enough and is sometimes even the problem, we need to listen' PETER GRAY, AUTHOR OF FREE TO LEARN 'Skach convincingly tells us that laws and rules are not sufficient for living together in peace' CARLO ROVELLI, AUTHOR OF SEVEN BRIEF LESSONS ON PHYSICS 'This book will help you understand the mess we're in while providing a roadmap for a better future' BEN RAWLENCE We believe that rules and laws are in place to protect us. They are what keep our societies from descending into chaos. Without them, how would we know our right from wrong, live comfortably in our communities and be good neighbours to one another? C.L. Skach feels differently. She always believed in the strength of the law – she spent her career in some of the most fractured, war-torn corners of the world, reading and writing constitutions to help fix society. But as she sat alone in a sandbagged trailer in Baghdad after a rocket attack, she admitted what she’d been denying for years: a good society cannot be imposed from above. It comes from leaning less on formal rules, and more on each other. Skach lays out six ideas, informed by everything from civil wars to civil rights struggles, bystander responsibility to mutual aid in the pandemic, to help us build small societies of our own. These ideas sometimes sound simple: share the vegetables from your garden, spend time on a park bench. But taken together they can amount to real, bottom-up change. How to Be a Citizen is a hopeful handbook for a better world – one we can all help build together.

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9781526655196

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When a renowned constitutional scholar explains why the law, enforced by a hierarchy of power, is not enough and is sometimes even the problem, we need to listen. Skach describes brilliantly, with compelling examples, six ways to become better citizens and thereby improve our own wellbeing while helping to build a better world from the ground up. I recommend this book to everyone -- Peter Gray, author of FREE TO LEARN Cindy Skach’s experience includes advising constitution drafters and observing how constitutions work (too often badly) in the ground. Drawing on that experience and a wide range of studies by social scientists, Skach urges us to move away from relying on constitutional rules and authorities and toward a ‘guerilla’ constitutionalism in which we rely on our own resources and resilience to solve our problems. Not James Madison but Bob Dylan (‘Don’t follow leaders/Watch the parking meters’) and Annie Lennox (‘Sisters are doin’ it for themselves’) should be our guide. This is an incredibly thought-provoking work addressing the crises of governance we face today -- Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School

When a renowned constitutional scholar explains why the law, enforced by a hierarchy of power, is not enough and is sometimes even the problem, we need to listen . . . I recommend this book to everyone -- Peter Gray, author of FREE TO LEARN Drawing on [her[experience and a wide range of studies by social scientists, Skach urges us to move away from relying on constitutional rules and authorities and toward a ‘guerilla’ constitutionalism in which we rely on our own resources and resilience to solve our problems . . . This is an incredibly thought-provoking work addressing the crises of governance we face today -- Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School

When a renowned constitutional scholar explains why the law, enforced by a hierarchy of power, is not enough and is sometimes even the problem, we need to listen -- Peter Gray, author of FREE TO LEARN Drawing on her experience and a wide range of studies by social scientists, Skach urges us to move away from relying on constitutional rules and authorities and toward a ‘guerilla’ constitutionalism in which we rely on our own resources and resilience to solve our problems . . . This is an incredibly thought-provoking work addressing the crises of governance we face today -- Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School From a search for laws that can provide the basis for a good society, Skach leads us to re-examine the virtues of a good citizen, one whom people can respect and value as a member of their community -- Roger Myerson, University of Chicago, 2007 Nobel Laureate in Economics

Author Information

C.L. Skach is Professor of Political and Legal Theory at the University of Bologna. She was previously a professor at King’s College London, the University of Oxford and Harvard University. She has taught constitutional law and government, conducted ethnographic and archival research and held visiting professorships on five continents. She divides her time between Oxford and Bologna.

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