Book excerpt: One of the key issues of our time is the question of where power and governance should lie. Should they be centrally controlled, drawing on efficiencies of scale and gathered knowledge? Or should they be more locally distributed, so that they more closely represent the actual needs of people and communities? In Taking Power Back, Simon Parker makes a powerful case for the latter: centralization, he argues, has been largely a failure, breeding distrust among citizens--who, he shows, are beginning to take matters into their own hands. Offering policy recommendations and practical suggestions, Parker argues for a new kind of politics, one that can fully unleash society's creative potential.