Berger Attention Deficit Democracy

The Paradox of Civic Engagement
Course Book
ISBN: 978-1-4008-4031-1
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 224 Seiten

Handwringing about political apathy is as old as democracy itself. As early as 425 BC, the playwright Aristophanes ridiculed his fellow Athenians for gossiping in the market instead of voting. In more recent decades, calls for greater civic engagement as a democratic cure-all have met with widespread agreement. But how realistic--or helpful--is it to expect citizens to devote more attention and energy to politics? In Attention Deficit Democracy, Ben Berger provides a surprising new perspective on the problem of civic engagement, challenging idealists who aspire to revolutionize democracies and their citizens, but also taking issue with cynics who think that citizens cannot--and need not--do better.

"Civic engagement" has become an unwieldy and confusing catchall, Berger argues. We should talk instead of political, social, and moral engagement, figuring out which kinds of engagement make democracy work better, and how we might promote them. Focusing on political engagement and taking Alexis de Tocqueville and Hannah Arendt as his guides, Berger identifies ways to achieve the political engagement we want and need without resorting to coercive measures such as compulsory national service or mandatory voting.

By providing a realistic account of the value of political engagement and practical strategies for improving it, while avoiding proposals we can never hope to achieve, Attention Deficit Democracy makes a persuasive case for a public philosophy that much of the public can actually endorse.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Berger, Benjamin

Berger, Ben

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Demokratie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface vii

CHAPTER 1: Introduction 1

CHAPTER 2: The Rules of Engagement 24

CHAPTER 3: Political Engagement as Intrinsic Good: Arendt and Company 52

CHAPTER 4: Political Engagement as Instrumental Good: Tocqueville, Attention Deficit, and Energy 83

CHAPTER 5: Is Political Engagement Better Than Sex? 121

CHAPTER 6: Conclusion: Tocqueville vs. the Full Monty 144

Bibliography 175

Index 195

Über Autor(innen)

Ben Berger is associate professor of political science at Swarthmore College.