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The Rule of Nobody
- Saving America from Dead Laws and Senseless Bureaucracy
- Narrated by: Allen O'Reilly
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
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Publisher's summary
The secret to good government is a question no one in Washington is asking: “What’s the right thing to do?”
What’s wrong in Washington is deeper than you think.
Sure, there’s gridlock, polarization, and self-dealing. But hidden underneath is something bigger and more destructive. It’s a broken governing system. From that comes wasteful government, rising debt, failing schools, expensive health care, and economic hardship.
Rules have replaced leadership in America. Bureaucracy, regulation, and outmoded law tie our hands and confine policy choices. Nobody asks, “What’s the right thing to do here?” Instead, they wonder, “What does the rule book say?”
There’s a fatal flaw in America’s governing system—trying to decree correctness through rigid laws will never work. Public paralysis is the inevitable result of the steady accretion of detailed rules. America is now run by dead people—by political leaders from the past who enacted mandatory programs that churn ahead regardless of waste, irrelevance, or new priorities.
America needs to radically simplify its operating system and give people—officials and citizens alike—the freedom to be practical. Rules can’t accomplish our goals. Only humans can get things done.
In The Rule of Nobody, Philip K. Howard argues for a return to the framers’ vision of public law—setting goals and boundaries, not dictating daily choices. This incendiary book explains how America went wrong and offers a guide for how to liberate human ingenuity to meet the challenges of this century.
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Democracy has been the American religion since before the Revolution - from New England town halls to the multicultural democracy of Atlantic pirate ships. But can our current political system, one that seems responsive only to the wealthiest among us and leaves most Americans feeling disengaged, voiceless, and disenfranchised, really be called democratic? And if the tools of our democracy are not working to solve the rising crises we face, how can we - average citizens - make change happen? David Graeber, one of the most influential scholars and activists of his generation, takes listeners on a journey through the idea of democracy.
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Must-read: such insight, an awakening!
- By Kevin on 10-15-14
By: David Graeber
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Supreme Power
- 7 Pivotal Supreme Court Decisions That Had a Major Impact on America
- By: Ted Stewart
- Narrated by: Art Allen
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author Ted Stewart explains how the Supreme Court and its nine appointed members now stand at a crucial point in their power to hand down momentous and far-ranging decisions. Today's Court affects every major area of American life, from health care to civil rights, from abortion to marriage. This fascinating book reveals the complex history of the Court as told through seven pivotal decisions.
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Polemical, downright ridiculous at times
- By Joe Igla on 11-04-17
By: Ted Stewart
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The People vs. Democracy
- Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It
- By: Yascha Mounk
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The world is in turmoil. From India to Turkey and from Poland to the United States, authoritarian populists have seized power. As a result democracy itself may now be at risk. Two core components of liberal democracy - individual rights and the popular will - are at war with each other. As the role of money in politics soared and important issues were taken out of public contestation, a system of "rights without democracy" took hold. Populists who rail against this say they want to return power to the people. But in practice they create a system of "democracy without rights."
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Not worth it
- By DailyShopper on 06-07-18
By: Yascha Mounk
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The Fourth Revolution
- The Global Race to Reinvent the State
- By: John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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From the best-selling authors of The Right Nation, a visionary argument that our current crisis in government is nothing less than the fourth radical transition in the history of the nation-state. Dysfunctional government: It' s become a cliché, and most of us are resigned to the fact that nothing is ever going to change. As John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge show us, that is a seriously limited view of things. In fact, there have been three great revolutions in government in the history of the modern world.
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A must read for everyone wondering whats going?
- By Truth-be-told on 03-30-15
By: John Micklethwait, and others
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Making Our Democracy Work
- A Judge’s View
- By: Justice Stephen Breyer
- Narrated by: Luis Moreno
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer delivers an impassioned argument for the proper role of America’s highest judicial body. Examining historic and contemporary decisions by the Court, Breyer highlights the rulings that have bolstered public confidence as well as the missteps that have triggered distrust. What emerges is a unique approach - certain to be admired for years to come - to interpreting the Constitution.
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Timely
- By Don on 05-17-17
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Libertarianism
- What Everyone Needs to Know
- By: Jason Brennan
- Narrated by: Nicholas Ramsey
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Historically, Americans have seen libertarians as far outside the mainstream, but with the rise of the Tea Party movement, libertarian principles have risen to the forefront of Republican politics. But libertarianism is more than the philosophy of individual freedom and unfettered markets that Republicans have embraced. Indeed, as Jason Brennan points out, libertarianism is a quite different - and far richer - system of thought than most of us suspect. In this timely new entry in Oxford's acclaimed series What Everyone Needs to Know, Brennan offers a nuanced portrait of libertarianism.
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very informative
- By S. Schmidt on 09-21-19
By: Jason Brennan
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Common Sense for the Common Good
- Libertarianism as the End of Two-Party Tyranny
- By: Gary E. Johnson
- Narrated by: Gary E. Johnson
- Length: 2 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Gary Johnson, Libertarian Party candidate for president and former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico, stakes his claim to the very center of the political spectrum. His new audiobook, Common Sense for the Common Good, offers his approach to how a member of a third party, acting as the chief arbiter of the US, can restore sanity and functionality to the highest office in the land.
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A refreshing voice in politics.
- By Jason on 10-20-16
By: Gary E. Johnson
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Our Lost Constitution
- The Willful Subversion of America's Founding Document
- By: Mike Lee
- Narrated by: Mike Lee, Tom Parks
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Senator Mike Lee tells the dramatic, little-known stories behind six of the Constitution's most indispensable provisions. He shows their rise. He shows their fall. And he makes vividly clear how nearly every abuse of federal power today is rooted in neglect of this Lost Constitution.
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Solution is a bit naive
- By Will on 08-07-16
By: Mike Lee
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The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve
- By: Peter Conti-Brown
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The independence of the Federal Reserve is considered a cornerstone of its identity, crucial for keeping monetary policy decisions free of electoral politics. But do we really understand what is meant by "Federal Reserve independence"? Using scores of examples from the Fed's rich history, The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve shows that much common wisdom about the nation's central bank is inaccurate.
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Meandering, gossipy, a bit pop-journalistic
- By Philo on 10-03-16
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Reason
- Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Robert B. Reich
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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From Robert B. Reich, passionate believer in American democracy and public servant, Reason is a guide to confronting and derailing what he sees as the mounting threat to American liberty, prosperity, and security posed by the radical conservatives, Radcons as he calls them.
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Reason
- By Ron Green on 03-13-05
By: Robert B. Reich
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Creating Freedom
- The Lottery of Birth, the Illusion of Consent, and the Fight for Our Future
- By: Raoul Martinez
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 17 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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A manifesto for deep and radical change, Creating Freedom explores the limits placed on freedom by human nature and society. It explodes myths, calling for a profound transformation in the way we think about democracy, equality, and our own identities.
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The BEST book, I've listened to in a long time
- By G. Newton on 04-16-17
By: Raoul Martinez
What listeners say about The Rule of Nobody
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Brady Reed
- 04-15-18
Infuriating and Cogent
I’ve been a fan of Philip K. Howard for years and he does not disappoint. He is the Thomas Jefferson of our time. If only we could get his ideas done.
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- Jared
- 04-15-14
I Wish Everyone Would Read This Book
If I had the money, I'd buy a copy for every US voter. Howard calls attention to what is really paralyzing our government - a bureaucratic reversion to microscopically inane rules that 1) no one fully knows, 2) no one can change, and 3) provide "cover" for both amoral politicians as well as inept workers. It is April 15th and millions of Americans are doing their taxes - and cursing those incomprehensible forms. Welcome to the world of Administrative Rule-Making.
I don't know how or why this happened - Howard says the administrative rule-making craze really got going around 1969 - the idea being that to have a "fair" government, you have to have a mechanistic ("automatic") government where office-holders (including bureaucrats) are not free to act prudently, but must act according to prescribed rules. However, no one seems to have stopped to question the logic behind this: sure, it is true that an impersonal, mechanistic government is incapable of "unfair" treatment - but unless the rules are being created (and updated) by God - a little knowledge of the history of human predictive prowess would indicate that the result of a mountain of procedural rules will produce absurd results - like a superpower that threatens itself with a shut down every other year while Congress trades chits.
As Howard says, for all the virtue of the US Constitution, The Founders failed to consider that the structure they created makes it hard to make new laws - but it makes it even harder to change or revoke old laws.
There are only two possible outcomes here. Either we adapt our government into an agile format that restores authority (and with it, accountability) to office-holders, or the US government will collapse, sooner or later. The billions of dollars wasted every year on policies and programs we know are broken - but can't be fixed - are unsustainable - and immoral.
I would also like to note that this book can also be read as a prescription of what is wrong with corporate America, too. Large corporations suffer all the same problems seen in our government.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Just Browsing
- 08-26-14
Fantastic but repetitive
What made the experience of listening to The Rule of Nobody the most enjoyable?
The description of the daunting problems facing our democracy was excellent, thorough, and very well researched. The suggested solutions were also thoughtful and well-reasoned, though I was really disappointed that the audio version does not include the proposed constitutional amendments that are mentioned in the text (which says they are in the appendix). Finally, there were a number of places where the author kept saying the same thing over and over, which detracted from the overall quality of the book.
Would you listen to another book narrated by Allen O'Reilly?
I probably would, though there were two or three times when he read a word with the wrong inflection, or simply read the wrong word. The best example I can think of is towards the end, where he said "prerequisite" in a passage where the author had likely written "perquisite." His voice was right for the job, and overall he did well, but he could have used some quality control.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Wake up, America! Your Democracy is Crumbling
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1 person found this helpful
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- Michael
- 08-17-18
It matters not your political affiliation
This book openly discusses where we are what we need to do and how most effective move forward
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- Gerry
- 07-07-15
Everyone should read this
Howard is right on point about how inane, intricate, and unchallenged rules dealing with the minutiae of interaction between citizens and government are crushing innovation and collective morality. I'm not sure if his suggested remedies are possible or would be effective if they were, but for all our sakes let's hope that something can pull us out of the mess.
The book is well written and very much to the point. He labors a few of his examples and those examples are somewhat limited. Also, while there is some supporting data, the book would have benefited from significantly more supporting data. But this is still a book you should read.
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- A. Barrios
- 05-23-15
A must read
For anyone truly interested in learning how we can change our country and take back our future - good stuff!
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- Jake
- 02-05-15
Preachy, redundant, and unpersuasive
I really wanted to like this book. I'm sympathetic with the thesis, but Howard just persistently talks at the listener in a condescending manner. He provides a few cases here and there of maddening rule abuse but doesn't offer any in depth analysis of why the culture of excessive rules is the way it is. It's as if the whole book he is repeatedly saying, "Bah! Look at this! Isn't this crazy??" Yes it is, Howard. So do the intellectual work that I thought I was paying for and tell me why it's like this. It's hard to believe this guy is an accomplished writer. If you want a more scholarly, persuasive book about dumb laws and government failure in general, read Why Government Fails So Often by Peter Schuck. He actually gives a more comprehensive analysis of the dumb law phenomenon and it's only one section of his book! Plus, you get way more for your money!
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7 people found this helpful