This book focuses on the growing problems of governance in the United States and on potential means of alleviating them. The prob- lems are familiar: more single-issue politics and gridlock in Congress, more breakdowns in administrative control and accountability within the executive branch, and more litigation over public policy in the courts—as well as persistently low levels of public trust in the federal government since the 1960s. Relatively few Americans, however, have appreciated the potential of community-based initiatives to help re- solve some problems of governance. Such initiatives have arisen during recent decades in response to specific, unresolved issues of local scope in different policy areas nationwide. Some initiatives already.
