FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kate Cloud
Political Research Associates
1310 Broadway
Somerville, MA  02144-1731
Email:  k.cloud@mindspring.com
Phone: 617.666.5300
Fax:     617.666.6622
www.publiceye.org

Rights for Some: New Report Targets Erosion of Democracy

Somerville, MA, August 22, 2001 - Political Research Associates (PRA) announces the release of Rights for Some: The Erosion of U.S. Democracy by PRA President Jean Hardisty.  The paper discusses right-wing leaders’ attempts to limit the definition of democracy, often leaving people of color, women, immigrants and other groups  “outside the fence” and not worthy or deserving of protection under the law.

“An accurate analysis of the Right’s agenda reveals that, while it embraces the rhetoric of democracy, it promotes a constricted, shrunken version of democracy,” according to Hardisty.

Rights for Some details the efforts of the US political Right to restrict democratic participation in a number of areas, including privatization and deregulation, voting rights, the separation of church and state, immigrant rights, and  ballot initiatives.

“With the George W. Bush administration’s lack of leadership and worsening record in the area of human and civil rights, Rights for Some is useful in shedding light on the origins and implications of current policies, and points in the direction we should proceed if we’re serious about inclusion,“ according to PRA Director Kate Cloud.

Political Research Associates (PRA) is an independent research center based in Somerville, MA that monitors and analyzes anti-democratic movements and trends. The organization has served as a national information resource on the political Right for activists, journalists, educators, policy makers and the public at large for the past twenty years.