Democracy at Risk: How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation and what We Can Do about itBrookings Institution Press, 2005 - 228 páginas Voter turnout was unusually high in the 2004 U.S. presidential election. At first glance, that level of participation largely spurred by war in Iraq and a burgeoning culture war at home might look like vindication of democracy. If the recent past is any indication, however, too many Americans will soon return to apathy and inactivity. Clearly, all is not well in our civic life. Citizens are participating in public affairs too infrequently, too unequally, and in too few venues to develop and sustain a robust democracy. This important new book explores the problem of America's decreasing involvement in its own affairs.D emocracy at Risk reveals the dangers of civic disengagement for the future of representative democracy. The authors, all eminent scholars, undertake three main tasks: documenting recent trends in civic engagement, exploring the influence that the design of political institutions and public policies have had on those trends, and recommending steps that will increase the amount and quality of civic engagement in America. The authors focus their attention on three key areas: the electoral process, including elections and the way people get involved; the impact of location, including demographic shifts and changing development patterns; and the critical role of nonprofit organizations and voluntary associations, including the philanthropy that help keep them going. This important project, initially sponsored by the American Political Science Association, tests the proposition that social science has useful insights on the state of our democratic life. Most importantly, it charts a course for reinvigorating civic participation in the world's oldest democracy. The authors: Stephen Macedo (Princeton University), Yvette Alex-Assensoh (Indiana University), Jeffrey M. Berry (Tufts), Michael Brintnall (American Political Science Association), David E. Campbell (Notre Dame), Luis Ricardo Fraga (Stanford), Archon Fung (Harvard), William A. Galston (University of Maryland), Christopher F. Karpowitz (Princeton), Margaret Levi (University of Washington), Meira Levinson (Radcliffe Institute), Keena Lipsitz (California Berkeley), Richard G. Niemi (University of Rochester), Robert D. Putnam (Harvard), Wendy M. Rahn (University of Minnesota), Keith Reeves (Swarthmore), Rob Reich (Stanford), Robert R. Rodgers (Princeton), Todd Swanstrom (Saint Louis University), and Katherine Cramer Walsh (University of Wisconsin). |
Índice
Toward a Political Science of Citizenship | 1 |
What Is Civic Engagement? | 6 |
What Dimensions of Civic Engagement Should We Care About? | 8 |
Can Civic Engagement Be Bad? | 10 |
Our Report and the American Political Science Association | 16 |
Roadmap to What Follows | 18 |
Conclusion | 19 |
National Electoral Processes | 21 |
Political Engagement between Elections | 90 |
Community Engagement through Nongovernmental Institutions and Groups | 97 |
What Is to Be Done? | 104 |
Conclusion | 114 |
Assodational Life and the Nonprofit and Philanthropic Sector | 117 |
Associations and Civic Engagement | 119 |
Volunteering and Growth of the Nonprofit Sector | 122 |
How Policy Creates and Regulates Nonprofits | 128 |
Basic Trends | 22 |
Diagnosing Our Civic Malaise | 30 |
Personal Factors | 32 |
Structural Factors | 41 |
Cultural Factors | 49 |
What Is to Be Done? | 52 |
Conclusion | 64 |
The American Metropolis | 67 |
The Promise and Perils of Local Politics | 68 |
Changing Patterns of Metropolitan Life | 73 |
Place Context and Civic Activity | 82 |
Engagement with Electoral Politics | 83 |
Reshaping the Civic Context for Associations | 131 |
What Is to Be Done? | 148 |
Conclusion | 152 |
Assessing Our Political Science of Citizenship | 155 |
Americas Democratic Deficit | 156 |
Our Agenda for Reform | 159 |
Pitfalls of Our Political Science of Citizenship | 170 |
Conclusion | 177 |
NOTES | 179 |
THE AUTHORS | |
Outras edições - Ver tudo
Democracy at Risk: How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation ... Stephen Macedo Pré-visualização limitada - 2006 |
Democracy at Risk: How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation ... Stephen Macedo Pré-visualização indisponível - 2006 |
Democracy at Risk: How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation and ... Stephen Macedo Pré-visualização indisponível - 2005 |
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Referências a este livro
Politische Beteiligung: Einführung in dialogorientierte Instrumente ... Norbert Kersting Pré-visualização limitada - 2008 |
The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-minded America is Tearing Us Apart Bill Bishop,Robert G. Cushing Pré-visualização limitada - 2008 |