Background
Robinson, Donald Leonard was born on December 28, 1936 in Buffalo. Son of Sidney Smith and Marion Esther (Hershiser) Robinson.
(At Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln described government by th...)
At Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln described government by the people as "the great task remaining before us." Many citizens of modern America, frustrated and disheartened, are tempted to despair of realizing that ideal. Yet, it is a project still alive in parts of New England. This book traces the origins of town-meeting democracy in Ashfield, a community of just under 2,000 people in the foothills of the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. Donald Robinson begins by recounting several crises at the town's founding in the eighteenth century that helped to shape its character. He shows how the town has changed since then and examines how democratic self-government functions in the modern context. The picture is not pretty. Self-government carries no guarantees, and Ashfield is no utopia. Human failings are abundantly on display. Leaders mislead. Citizens don't pay attention and they forget hard-earned lessons. But in this candid account of the operation of democracy in one New England town, Robinson demonstrates that for better and for worse, Ashfield governs itself democratically. Citizens control the actions of their government. Not everyone participates, but all may, and everyone who lives in the town must accept and obey what town meeting decides.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1558498559/?tag=2022091-20
(In 1945, Japan surrendered unconditionally to the United ...)
In 1945, Japan surrendered unconditionally to the United States and its allies, thereby planting the seed from which would spring one of the world's most successful and stable democracies. In an age when democracy is often pursued, yet rarely accomplished, in which failed democracies are found throughout Africa, Latin America, and Asia, Japan's transformation from an utterly defeated military power into a thriving constitutional democracy commands attention. It has long been assumed that postwar Japan was largely the making of America, that democracy was simply imposed on a defeated land. Yet a political and legal system cannot long survive, much less thrive, if resisted by the very citizens it exists to serve. The external imposition of a constitution does not automatically translate into a constitutional democracy of the kind Japan has enjoyed for the past half-century. Apparently Japan, though under military occupation, was ready for what the West had to offer. Ray A. Moore and Donald L. Robinson convincingly show that the country's affirmation of democracy was neither cynical nor merely tactical. What made Japan different was that Japan and the United States-represented in Tokyo by the headstrong and deeply conservative General Douglas MacArthur-worked out a genuine partnership, navigating skillfully among die-hard defenders of the emperor, Japanese communists, and America's opinionated erstwhile allies. No dry recounting of policy decisions and diplomatic gestures, Partners for Democracy resounds with the strong personalities and dramatic clashes that paved the way to a hard-won success. Here is the story of how a devastated land came to construct--at times aggressively and rapidly, at times deliberately and only after much debate-a democracy that stands today as the envy of many other nations.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195171764/?tag=2022091-20
Robinson, Donald Leonard was born on December 28, 1936 in Buffalo. Son of Sidney Smith and Marion Esther (Hershiser) Robinson.
Bachelor, Yale University, 1958; Master of Divinity, Union Theological Seminary, 1962; Doctor of Philosophy, Cornell Univercity, 1966.
Instructor government, Cornell Univercity, Ithaca, New York, 1965-1966;
assistant professor, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1966-1971;
associate professor, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1971-1978;
professor, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, since 1978;
Sylvia Dlugasch Bauman chair American studies, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1990-1993;
director American studies, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1979-1985;
department chairman government, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, since 1997;
Charles N. Clark professor, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, since 1998. Consultant Ford Foundation, 1986-1988, 91-92, Media and Society, 1986-1987, Comm. on Operation of the United States Senate, 1976. Director Project '87, 1977-1978.
Visiting professor Doshisha U., Kyoto, Japan, 1989.
(Is American government ready for the twenty-first century...)
(In 1945, Japan surrendered unconditionally to the United ...)
(At Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln described government by th...)
(Reforming American Government: The Bicentennial Papers of...)
(Hardback with dust jacket)
(Paperback)
Administrator New England Regional Commission, 1973. Chairman Democratic City Committee, 1978-1980, Northampton Planning Board, 1980-1982. Warden St. John's Episcopal Church, 1981-1985, 2003-2006.
Trustee Diocese of Western Massachusetts, since 1988. Member select board, Ashfield, Massachusetts, 1992-2001. Columnist Daily Hampshire Gazette, since 2007.
Member American Political Science Association, Phi Beta Kappa.
Married Molly McCaslin Jahnige, January 1, 1983. Children: John Samuel, David Wynn. Stepchildren: Katherine Jahnige Mathews, Paul Jahnige.