Title: Accountability Citizenship
Author: Stephen P. Tryon
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 978-1-4797-8357-1
Pages: 118
Genre: Nonfiction/Political Science
Reviewed by: Matt Hurd
Pacific Book Review Star
Awarded to Books of Excellent Merit
“Unless we establish the proper accountability at the outset, we can do very bad things together without any one of us feeling like we have done anything wrong individually.”
With Accountability Citizenship, Stephen P. Tryon presents a remarkable, prescient treatise on government and the average citizen’s responsibility thereof. Originally published in 2013, the book holds continued relevance today – and presents arguments and ideas that are almost certainly even more crucial in 2018’s political climate. Drawing on his own family history, personal experiences, and political research, Tryon suggests a large portion of Americans have become either politically passive or jaded by what we see as an inability to affect real change in our government. By buying into this illusion, he suggests, we are failing to see just how much power we, as citizens, really have in the political process.
Early in Accountability Citizenship, Tryon notes, “I intend the book to be nonpartisan. We only have to agree on the very basics—that the government of the United States is supposed to represent the people of the United States.” This may be the rare political treatise that lives up to its promise: the book is far less about political positions than it is about the importance of the political process that bolsters and challenges Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike.
Accountability Citizenship pushes for the everyday person to find ways of engaging in the political process, and cultivating an awareness of how that process has changed, for better and worse, in the digital age. Tryon argues that most politician’s today answer only to the loudest voices they hear – and the problem with that is the average voter may not consider themselves important enough to raise their voice (i.e. vote) in the first place.
In the five years since the book was originally published, the issues addressed within it have only come more and more to the forefront of national attention. Political arguments dominate the news, social media, and conversation, and many feel overwhelmed by the barrage of constant calls to action on so many fronts. Tryon proposes action plans to address this as well – much of the book is given over to frameworks, from the ground up, that the average voter can use this to determine where their energy, limited as it is, can be best spent to ensure that their representatives in government are actually representing the people.
Tryon’s style and voice make the book at once confident and accessible, which again sets it apart from so many aggressive political arguments in our current situation. He not only reminds the reader of their responsibilities, he hands us the tools to manage them. Overall, Accountability Citizenship is an engaging, prescient, fascinating book, and one that we would all do well to read.
