The Unbroken Machine

The Hill Times: Best Books of 2017 What if it is not our political system that is broken, but our understanding of it? Everybody thinks that its the system thats broken in politics; but what if its not the system thats broken but rather our understanding of it? What if everyones proposals to make the system more democratic only wind up making things worse, and weaken our systems of accountability so much as to make them meaningless? What if its our own ignorance that is killing democracy in this country? Dale Smith looks at the critical gaps in civic literacy that have become endemic within Canadian political culture, wading through buzzwords and meaningless proposals to suggest real solutions. Designed for the lay reader, The Unbroken Machine seeks to explore our lack of civic literacy and show how our system of democracy should work if only we were to engage with it the way it was meant to be.