Fixing Elections: The Failure of America's Winner Take All Politics by Steven Hill; Routledge Press.

Steven Hill, of the San Francisco-based Center for Voting and Democracy, is one of the country's leading proponents of proportional representation, instant runoff voting (IRV), and other alternatives to winner-take-all electoral systems. He was the campaign manager for the precedent-setting Proposition A, a 2001 ballot measure that made San Francisco the nation's first major city to adopt an IRV system for its elections. In Fixing Elections, he breaks down how our two-party duopoly has increasingly left most Americans unrepresented and alienated, setting up everything from the dominance of money in politics to the lack of competitive races, risk-taking, or representation of minority voices and views. Again, Hill offers solutions; many other countries have found ways to improve on our 18th century notions of representative democracy, and He outlines a lot of the alternatives, how they work, and how folks can work to get them enacted.

An eye-opening examination of just how deeply embedded in our electoral structure many of our current woes are, and how simple--and revolutionary--some of the fixes could be.--Geov Parrish

ETS! fellow traveler Steven Hill will be visiting the Northwest in January, presenting his book Fixing Elections: The Failure of America's Winner Take All System at Village Books in Bellingham on Jan. 13 at 7:30 PM and in Seattle at Elliot Bay Books on Jan. 14 (see Calendar for Details).

He's also planned a couple of workshops on Jan. 12. One is in Seattle at 1 PM, location TBA, info: brent_white@hotmail.com or Janet Anderson JanetRAnderson@msn.com. The other is in Bellingham at 7 PM, info: Anne Atkeson aatkeson@openaccess.org for more information, location, etc.

The Dalai Lama is widely known as that cute-as-a-bug Tibetan monk who won the Nobel Peace Prize and says simple sounding things like "the whole of my religion is kindness." He is also a highly trained philosopher and masterful politician who has matched wits with the likes of Mao, and has helped his Tibetan people maintain their culture, and a future, in the face of occupation and exile as refugees. His book, Ethics for a New Millennium is written in the simple, matter-of-fact style of a man who calls himself a "simple Tibetan monk." But it's not simplistic. It presents a system of ethics based wholly in Buddhist philosophy, not as merely a nice way to live, but as the most reasonable way for everyone to live. Schooled in the sophisticated analytical systems of his Gelugpa school of Buddhism, he develops a logical and consistent argument to support his assertion that compassion, mutual responsibility and peace are humanly attainable and a clear improvement for everybody, even those who think they're getting ahead through violence and exploitation. I found this book terribly relevant for our present moment and finished it more inspired and optimistic than when I started.--Troy Skeels