Activism
American middle class
Anti-communism
Bad for Democracy
Big government
Bribery
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Citizens (Spanish political party)
Coalition government
Cold War
Communitarianism
Competition (economics)
Contentious politics
Corruption
Criticism of democracy
Dealignment
Decolonization
Democracy
Democratic deficit
Disenchantment
Distrust
Economic interventionism
Economic planning
Economics
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Externality
Fiscal adjustment
Government failure
Industrial democracy
Institution
Insurgency
International relations
Internationalization
Japan New Party
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jimmy Carter
John Mueller
Left-wing politics
Legitimacy (political)
Liberalism
Liberalization
Misconduct
Negative campaigning
New Democrats
Political agenda
Political alienation
Political corruption
Political party
Political science
Politician
Politics
Protectionism
Protest vote
Realigning election
Representative democracy
Right-wing politics
Robert D. Putnam
Social capital
Social movement
Statism
Structural unemployment
Tax
Tax reform
Term limit
The Crisis of Democracy
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer
Trilateral Commission
Unemployment
Voting
Welfare
Welfare state
World Values Survey
Product details
- ISBN 9780691049243
- Weight: 595g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 28 May 2000
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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It is a notable irony that as democracy replaces other forms of governing throughout the world, citizens of the most established and prosperous democracies (the United States and Canada, Western European nations, and Japan) increasingly report dissatisfaction and frustration with their governments. Here, some of the most influential political scientists at work today examine why this is so in a volume unique in both its publication of original data and its conclusion that low public confidence in democratic leaders and institutions is a function of actual performance, changing expectations, and the role of information. The culmination of research projects directed by Robert Putnam through the Trilateral Commission and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, these papers present new data that allow more direct comparisons across national borders and more detailed pictures of trends within countries than previously possible. They show that citizen disaffection in the Trilateral democracies is not the result of frayed social fabric, economic insecurity, the end of the Cold War, or public cynicism.
Rather, the contributors conclude, the trouble lies with governments and politics themselves. The sources of the problem include governments' diminished capacity to act in an interdependent world and a decline in institutional performance, in combination with new public expectations and uses of information that have altered the criteria by which people judge their governments. Although the authors diverge in approach, ideological affinity, and interpretation, they adhere to a unified framework and confine themselves to the last quarter of the twentieth century. This focus--together with the wealth of original research results and the uniform strength of the individual chapters--sets the volume above other efforts to address the important and increasingly international question of public dissatisfaction with democratic governance. This book will have obvious appeal for a broad audience of political scientists, politicians, policy wonks, and that still sizable group of politically minded citizens on both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific.
Susan J. Pharr is Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics at Harvard University. She is the author of Political Women in Japan: The Search for a Place in Political Life and Losing Face: Status Politics in Japan. Robert D. Putnam is Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. He is author of Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton) and Bowling Alone: Decline and Renewal of the American Community.
