Democracy at Risk How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation, and What We Can Do About It

All is not well with American civic life. Citizens take part in public affairs too infrequently, too unequally, and with too little knowledge to sustain a healthy body politic. In Democracy at Risk, a distinguished team of political scientists reveals the dangers of civic disengagement for the future of representative democracy. The authors document the symptoms, such as low and unequal voter turnout. They discuss the possible sources of these problems, particularly those that arise from the design of our political institutions and public policies, and the ramifications. This important book then charts a course for reinvigorating civic participation in the United States, testing the proposition that scholarship can provide useful insight into our democratic life. Book jacket.