Wednesdays at at Preservation Hall from 6:00 to 8:00 PM - April 10, 17, 24 and May 1

" If all politics is local, as House Speaker -and sometime Harwich resident -Thomas P. O'Neill famously said, then an appreciation of the strengths and success of local politics is key to understanding why the national version too often veers into dysfunction. This course will reach back to the Mayflower Compact, signed off our shores in 1620, to see if it is indeed the nation's seminal document outlining our relationship with our government or not. From the egalitarianism and foibles of open town meeting, to the rationale of a recent change in the structure of Cape Cod Boards of Selectmen, ending with the question of why our towns are 'strong' but our county 'weak,' we'll examine how structure can either inhibit or propel progress. Special guests will be invited.

Seth Rolbein is former editor of The Cape Codder, Founding Editor and Publisher of The Cape Cod Voice, and presently Senior Adviser to Cape and Islands Senator Dan Wolf. "