Civic engagement in American democracy
By: Theda Skocpol, Morris P. Fiorina, editors.
Contributors: Skocpol, Theda.; Fiorina, Morris P.
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press; Russell Sage Foundation
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Washington, D.C; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 528
Subjects: Political participation -- United States; Civil society -- United States; Democracy -- United States
Description: "Civic Engagement in American Democracy opens with an eagle's-eye view of the roots of America's special patterns of civic involvement, examining the way social groups and government and electoral politics have influenced each other over the last 200 years. Other chapters explore community politics, the electoral process, religious institutions, and the advantages and disadvantages of contemporary advocacy politics.

The book also probes the influence of long-term social and cultural changes on voluntary associations and civic participation."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Preface and acknowledgments. Making sense of the civic engagement debate / Theda Skocpol and Morris P. Fiorina; title: Part One, Between state and society: roots of American civic engagement. How America became civic / Theda Skocpol, with the assistance of Marshall Ganz ... [et al.]; title: Organizational repertoires and institutional change: women's groups and the transformation of American politics, 1890-1920 / Elisabeth S. Clemens; title: National elections as institutions for generating social capital / Wendy M. Rahn, John Brehm, and Neil Carlson; title: Part Two, Civic life in a changing society. Professions and civic engagement: trends in rhetoric and practice, 1875-1995 / Steven Brint and Charles S. Levy; title: Vital signs: organizational population trends and civic engagement in New Haven, Connecticut, 1850-1998 / Peter Dobkin Hall; title: Social change and civic engagement: the case of the PTA / Susan Crawford and Peggy Levitt; title: Technological change and associational life / Marcella Ridlen Ray; title: Mobilizing civic engagement: the changing impact of religious involvement / Robert Wuthnow; title: Part Three, The ironies of contemporary activism. The rise of citizen groups / Jeffrey M. Berry; title: Extreme voices: a dark side of civic engagement / Morris P. Fiorina; title: Civic participation and the equality problem / Kay Lehman Schlozman, Sidney Verba, and Henry E. Brady; title: Advocates without members: the recent transformation of American civic life / Theda Skocpol.