Diminished Democracy
Subtitle:  From Membership to Management in American Civic Life
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: March 2003
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 366
ISBN-13: 9780806135328
Subjects: United States; Politics / Current Events; Political Ideologies - Democracy; Political Science; Politics/International Relations; Civil society; Social history; Social, group or collective psychology; USA; Democracy; Civics & Citizenship; Political participation
First sentence: MORE THAN A MILE DOWN A narrow winding road, the earthly remains of William Warren Durgin of North Lovell, Maine, lie in a small out-of-the-way cemetery peppered with tiny headstones nestled amid trees along a brook.
Description: Pundits and social observers have voiced alarm each year as fewer Americans involve themselves in voluntary groups that meet regularly. Thousands of nonprofit groups have been launched in recent times, but most are run by professionals who lobby Congress or deliver social services to clients. What will happen to U.S. democracy if participatory groups and social movements wither, while civic involvement becomes one more occupation rather than every citizen's right and duty? In Diminished Democracy, Theda Skocpol shows that this decline in public involvement has not always been the case in this country--and how, by understanding the causes of this change, we might reverse it.