Power to the people

Danny Sriskandarajah learned the value of citizenship at a young age as the child of Tamil migrants who moved from Sri Lanka to Australia.

Arriving in the UK as the first Rhodes scholar from an Asian immigrant background, he has gone on to run a series of civil society organisations, and has become a leading voice in the third sector. POWER TO THE PEOPLE is his radical manifesto for change designed to inspire citizen action around the world.

The book presents a blueprint for how we, as individuals, can make a difference through greater community engagement, and how we can deliver a society that works for the many and not the few.

He speaks to voter apathy and a growing sense that elections no longer matter, with politicians and institutions too focused on short-term issues to grapple with complex global problems such as climate change, rising inequality, and digital disruption.

Yet the book is also filled with inspiring real-life examples of citizen power in action, ranging from a volunteer-run repair café in Danny's local suburb to Avaaz's successful campaigns to tackle endemic corruption in Brazil. From public ownership of social media spaces to democratising share ownership, and from re-energising co-operatives to creating a people's chamber at the United Nations, this campaigning book has a clear mission to make us reclaim our power as citizens of the world.