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Difference between revisions of "History of citizenship in the USA"
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==External links== | ==External links== |
Revision as of 00:12, 10 April 2014
This article contains content from Wikipedia An article on this subject has been nominated for deletion on Wikipedia: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/ History of citizenship in the USA Current versions of the GNU FDL article on WP may contain information useful to the improvement of this article |
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The duties of citizenship in the United States of America began during colonial times as an active civic participation in local government marked by frequent public debate and broad participation in democracy. A variety of factors and forces changed this relationship over the nation's history. Today, citizenship is essentially a legal status signifying a right to live and work in the nation as well as enjoy certain rights and privileges defined by law.
Twentieth century
Progressive Era
The Wikipedia:Progressive era emphasized civic duty and greatly expanded citizenship programs for immigrants, especially during the World War. Columbie University professor Wikipedia:James Harvey Robinson (1863–1936) worked to actively change society, helping found the Wikipedia:New School for Social Research in 1919. Robinson strongly believed that adult education was integral to an informed democratic society.[1]
World War II
World War II lifted the nation out of the Depression and saw 16 million Americans, including Wikipedia:African-Americans, who could use the experience in subsequent generations to demand an end to segregation and equal treatment under law.
Prosperity
After the war, the nation resumed a path to prosperity. Some writers blamed increasing wealth for exacerbating the decline in political participation.[2] Kaplan wrote: "Wikipedia:Aristophanes and Wikipedia:Euripides, the late-eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher Wikipedia:Adam Ferguson, and Tocqueville in the nineteenth century all warned that material prosperity would breed servility and withdrawal, turning people into, in Tocqueville's words, industrious sheep."[2] There are instances in which technology makes it less necessary to rely on neighbors; for example, in Wikipedia:Mount Vernon, Maine, telephone service in the 1960s used to be routed by two elderly operators "who knew everyone in town", but with new dialing technology, their assistance was no longer needed.[3] Today Wikipedia:Ipod music technology means people can walk down a public sidewalk practically oblivious to others, in their own private worlds. Tocqueville saw a natural tendency for democratic peoples to turn inwards, to tune out others.[4] Being in public doesn't make us feel important, so we turn to families, friends, television, entertainment, that is, we turn away from public life. He wouldn't have been surprised to see pedestrians listening to Ipods oblivious to others. He hoped local organizations and civic groups and churches would counteract this trend and help people turn outward.[5]
A speech in 1996 by Jean Elshtain at Wikipedia:Brigham Young University looked at democracy in that year, Elshtain spoke about the analysis of Tocqueville:
Citizenship USA
Citizenship USA was the name of a 1996 Wikipedia:plan for United States (WP) President Bill Clinton's (WP) administration to register and naturalize one million Wikipedia:Hispanics before that year's presidential election. The INS had previously planned for an increase to 700 thousand applications per year.[7] It would process 1.3 million applications and approve 1.1 million by the end of the 1996 fiscal year.[7] It was documented in a report by Wikipedia:California Representative Wikipedia:Chris Cox on May 12, 1997. The Justice Department's Inspector General concluded that the speedup plan resulted in poor background checks on thousands of applicants.[8]
Declining attendance at town meetings
During the second half of the 20th century, attendance at town meetings continued to decline. In 1970, in Wikipedia:Mount Vernon, Maine, 120 of 596 inhabitants gathered for the annual town meeting.[9] In 1977, a Time Magazine reporter wrote that the "town meeting has been declining for decades—a casualty of increasing population and the complexity of issues."[10] In one study of attendance at town hall meetings from 1970 to 1998, only 20% of the town showed up.[11] One source suggested attendance at town meetings varied from 20% to 26%.[12] One independent writer wondered that the substance of town meetings in present times bordered on the absurd. For example, Victoria Rose Perkins questioned the importance of a town debating ad infinitum about the spelling of the town's name.[12] In the town of Wikipedia:Huntington, Vermont, a meeting in March in 1977 was attended by only 130 out of 519 eligible citizens, that is, three of every four citizens stayed home.[10] The meeting lasted more than four hours and citizens discussed issues such as local real estate taxes and whether to buy a new fire truck (they did.)[10] The meeting had a social effect in helping people get to know their neighbors; the reporter concluded that "By and large, Huntingtonians seemed to genuinely like and trust each other."[10]
The 1960s were marked by street protests, demonstrations, rioting, civil unrest,[13] antiwar protests, and a cultural revolution.[14] Wikipedia:African-American youth protested following victories in the courts regarding Wikipedia:civil rights with street protests led by Wikipedia:Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as well as the NAACP.[15] But sit-ins, street protests, non-violent protests and lawsuits were the only ways for people to express discontent with the political system, since the possibility of attending town meetings to voice complaints was practically abandoned.
Persons who cared about a political issue didn't have a place to express their concerns, since attendance at town meetings was minimal. So getting public attention was the first step in any effort to change policy, and this wasn't easy. Advertising was expensive. Lacking funds, many activists felt pressure to pull bizarre stunts to get free press coverage, since an off-the-wall news story might captivate the public imagination for a short time; accordingly, activists for the left such as Wikipedia:Michael Moore made sarcastic documentary movies such as Wikipedia:Roger & Me[16] to attract attention; activists from the right such as radio talk show host Wikipedia:Rush Limbaugh made outrageous statements such as calling Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor a "reverse racist" to maintain radio ratings.[17] In contrast, activists such as supporters of the FairTax (WP) tax 'simplification' reform strategy who adopted a more reasonable approach often failed to win attention; since they were often reluctant to pull media stunts-hah!, the American public is mostly unaware of their proposal.[18] If activists succeeded at winning public attention without distorting their credibility, the next step was to persuade people to act, such as writing a letter to a congressperson. Here, too, there were obstacles to overcome, including public inertia. People mostly concluded that trying to accomplish some political goal was a waste of time. The few instances in which activism brought about successful political change in recent years were instances in which there was an aggrieved group, such as Wikipedia:African-Americans or feminists (WP) or Wikipedia:homosexuals, who felt the sting of bad policy over time, and who conducted long-range campaigns of protest together with media campaigns to change public opinion along with campaigns in the courts to change policy.
Erosion of trust
However, overall, the pattern is that trust between citizens seems to be declining.[6] Poll data suggest that people are less and less likely to trust their neighbors, with a marked shift from 1960 (60%) to 1993 (38%) of people answering yes to the question "Do you believe most people can be trusted, or can't you be too careful?"[6] Meyer wrote "Americans don't trust our institutions or one another" and "without trust, without a shared vocabulary, without community, we feel endangered."[19] Author Dick Meyer in Why We Hate Us describes an America in which people don't trust institutions or one another, and a declining sense of community.[19] Like Putnam, Meyer saw a drastic shift in values beginning about the 1960s, and blames ideological shifts as well as extensive involvement with the mass media (WP) (WP) and suburban sprawl.[19]
One reason offered to explain declining civic involvement is some municipal problems require experts and professionals and therefore citizens are not needed.[12][20] Declining civic engagement paralleled declining church attendance[21] and declining newspaper readership among the young.[22] There were questions whether young Americans are learning enough to stay informed about public issues.[22] Membership in communal groups like the PTA is declining; it had 9.5 million members, or nine percent of the adult population, in 1955, but membership has been declining since the 1960s.[19] Writers such as Wikipedia:Charles Murray described the decline in civic engagement and blamed government intervention for harming civic engagement.[23] Other writers notice a trend towards civic disengagement.[22][24]
Decline of social capital
By the late 20th century, Harvard professor of Wikipedia:public policy Robert Putnam noticed a decline in civic engagement, including activities normally done by citizens such as voting or attending local meetings.[25] His 1995 seminal article Wikipedia:Bowling Alone suggested that for the first two-thirds of the 20th century, Americans were deeply involved in their neighborhoods, towns, and cities, but since the 1950s, Wikipedia:baby boomers and Gen Xers and younger generations have gradually withdrawn from civic life; for example, from 1980 to 1993, the total number of bowlers increased by over 10%, yet league bowling fell by more than 40%.[25] "We are bowling alone rather than with our neighbors" according to his analysis.[25] The declining Wikipedia:social capital which Putnam defines as the "sum of complex, dense networks of connections, values, norms, and reciprocal relationships in a community" means people are less inclined to do citizenship-related activities.[25] Putnam blames the rise of electronic entertainment, especially television (WP), video games, and the Internet (WP) along with the pressures of time and money, the rise of two-income couples, increased commuting time, and urban sprawl.[24][25]
Civic activity | 1970s | 1990s | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Read newspaper daily | 49% | 21% | [22] |
Signed a petition | 42% | 23% | [22] |
Joined a union | 15% | 5% | [22] |
Attended a public meeting | 19% | 8% | [22] |
Wrote a congressperson | 13% | 7% | [22] |
Volunteered in a local organization | 13% | 6% | [22] |
Participated in student elections | 75% | 20% | (California)[22] |
Agree cleaning up environment is important | 45% | 19% | UCLA freshmen[22] |
Note: data from Robert Putnam's Wikipedia:Bowling Alone (2000) comparing 18-29 year olds in the 1972-1975 period with a similar age group during the Clinton years.[22]
Rutgers political science (WP) professor Wikipedia:Benjamin Barber sees a growing incivility in political discussions today and characterizes discussions as "divisive" with "almost no listening" and "no visible modification of opinion" and a "vilification of opponents."[26] Barber elaborated: "Divisive rhetoric has become not only disagreement between parties but a rejection of the legitimacy of the other side, validating a position that your opponents are immoral, un-American and possibly worthy of being subjected to violence," and added "Opponents become enemies of the Republic and the political process itself."[26] There is evidence that citizens have lost the ability to listen to each other; in a painting depicted by Wikipedia:Norman Rockwell about a 1943 town meeting, neighbors listened to a man argue for an unpopular opinion; today, however, there are few instances in which people listen to alternative points of view.[11]
Citizenship today
Conservative (WP) writer Wikipedia:William J. Bennett, despite noting a decline in civic participation, found resilience in the American character in the response after Wikipedia:9/11.[27] But others have been critical, thinking that government, in many instances, over-reacted to the threat of Wikipedia:terrorism by removing many Wikipedia:civil liberties, with expansive invasions of Wikipedia:privacy with Wikipedia:warrantless wiretapping, illegal searches and seizures and detentions of persons suspected with involvement with terrorists.
Town meetings today
Town meetings continue to happen today, although with greatly reduced attendance.[10] Local government decision-making was limited to a narrow range of topics unlikely to excite the attention of most residents. For example, in 2009 in the Wikipedia:New England town of Wikipedia:Smithfield, Rhode Island, the town agenda had issues such as housing, conservation, schools, the library, sewers, zoning, soil erosion, traffic safety, and so forth, and there were separate committees to discuss each issue.[28] The town's authority in many instances is circumscribed by decisions made at the county, state, or federal level. One of the top stories on the town website of Wikipedia:Casco, Maine was dog licenses; they're set to expire on December 31, 2009, and it's difficult to imagine neighbors getting charged up to attend town meetings to discuss dog licensing.[29] Casco has a year-round population of 3,500, but swells to 15,000 during the summer. Volunteering exists; it has a "Town Meeting form of government with an elected 5 member board of selectmen and a Town Manager" with community volunteers who are the "backbone of the Town of Casco's Rescue Unit and Wikipedia:Fire Department."[29]
The term "town meeting" has been somewhat distorted by the media; some television broadcasts describe shows as "town meetings" but they're more accurately described as "forums with supporters."[30] A candidate running for office will surround himself or herself with supporters, make a speech with a nice backdrop and camera-pleasing angles, and have the spectacle presented as if it's a "town meeting" in which there are active discussions happening; but such events are really public relations events analogous to political commercials. Some firms which specialize in the deliberative democracy business use trained facilitators, full-time staff, media and community outreach, and "a lot of technology."[11] The phrase "town hall meeting" is often used today to "signify a televised campaign event" and not a real but a "counterfeit" meeting since its primary purpose is to sell a political candidate.[11]
Jury duty and citizenship
Some writers see the institution of the New England town meeting embodied in the jury. "The jury is a direct democracy. It's the New England town meeting writ large. It's the people themselves governing."[31] Others see Wikipedia:jury duty as a useless chore to be avoided; comedian Wikipedia:Norm Crosby once joked "When you go into court, you're putting your fate into the hands of 12 people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty."[31] In New York (WP), many categories of people were automatically exempt from jury duty, including doctors, Wikipedia:lawyers, Wikipedia:firefighters, police officers (WP), and others, until a decision changed that.[31] And there is some evidence of a trend to undo the "automatic exemptions" of many professions across the nation.[31] While many Americans think the idea of being a juror is important, most agree the act of actually serving on one is "inconvenient".[31] One study found the response to jury summonses to be "extremely low" with sometimes only 15 people showing up out of a list of 100 names.[31] Many people don't get summonses since the juror lists are often outdated or incomplete.[31] Some people showing up for jury duty find the assembly room full, and end up returning home and feeling like their time was wasted.[31] Only 20% of people summoned for jury duty actually get put on a trial.[31] And payment is low, sometimes barely enough to cover parking fees.[31]
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External links
References
- ↑ Kevin Mattson, "The Challenges of Democracy: James Harvey Robinson, The New History, and Adult Education for Citizenship," Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2003 2(1): 48-79
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ "Nation: American Scene: Participatory Democracy". Time Magazine. April 13, 1970. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,904275-1,00.html. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "Jefferson called the New England town meeting "the best school of political liberty the world ever saw." To a degree, the town meeting represents an older communal spirit not unlike that of hippie settlements."
</li>
- ↑ Wikipedia:Jean Bethke Elshtain (1996-10-29). "Democracy at Century's End (speech)". Brigham Young University. http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=1055. Retrieved 2009-12-04. "The Times noted a "turn inward" and a lack of any "clear direction in the public's political thinking other than frustration with the current system and an eager responsiveness to alternative political solutions and appeals" ("U.S. Voters Focus on Selves, Poll Says," New York Times, 21 September 1994, p. A-21). Manifestations of voter frustration included growing disidentification with either of the major parties and massive political rootlessness among the young tethered to historically high rates of pessimism about the future." </li>
- ↑ Jean Bethke Elshtain (1996-10-29). "Democracy at Century's End (speech)". Brigham Young University. http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=1055. Retrieved 2009-12-04. "But this public-spiritedness is in jeopardy. Our social fabric is frayed. Our trust in our neighbors is low. We don't join as much. We give less money, as an overall percentage of our gross national product, to charity. Where once rough-and-tumble yet civil politics pertained, now we see "in your face" and "you just don't get it."" </li>
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Jean Bethke Elshtain (1996-10-29). "Democracy at Century's End (speech)". Brigham Young University. http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=1055. Retrieved 2009-12-04. "In Tocqueville's worst-case scenario, narrowly self-involved individualists, disarticulated from the saving constraints and nurture of overlapping associations of social life, would move to a bad and isolating egoism. Once that happened, they would require more controls from above in order to muffle the disintegrative effects of egoism..." </li>
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 http://www.govexec.com/features/0197s4.htm
- ↑ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25446136/
- ↑ "Nation: American Scene: Participatory Democracy". Time Magazine. April 13, 1970. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,904275-1,00.html. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "In mud time 1970, 120 of the 596 inhabitants of Mount Vernon, Me., gathered at the elementary school for the 182nd annual meeting since the first one was held in 1788." </li>
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Staff writer (March 14, 1977). "AMERICAN SCENE: New England: Rites of March". Time Magazine. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947252,00.html. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "In the view of a 19th century visitor to New England, Alexis de Tocqueville, the town meeting was a marvel of "municipal freedom" flourishing in a "semibarbarous" country; he was impressed at how ordinary citizens could gather to settle their affairs with "no distinction of rank." Although the town meeting has been declining for decades—a casualty of increasing population and the complexity of issues—it is still an honored rite of March in hundreds of communities." </li>
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Philip Kennicott (August 15, 2009). "When Town Halls Go Viral, There's Sickness in the Air". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/14/AR2009081401216.html. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "Alexis de Tocqueville once said that "local institutions," such as town meetings, were "to liberty what primary schools are to science."" </li>
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Victoria Rose Perkins. Why the traditional town meeting in Vermont is no longer appropriate in the current era. Helium. URL accessed on 2009-12-06.
- ↑ Arthur Marwick (1998). "The Sixties–Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, c.1958-c.1974 (excerpt from book)". The New York Times: Books. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/marwick-sixties.html. Retrieved 2009-12-06. "...black civil rights; youth culture and trend-setting by young people; idealism, protest, and rebellion; the triumph of popular music based on Afro-American models and the emergence of this music as a universal language, with the Beatles as the heroes of the age..." </li>
- ↑ Katy Marquardt (August 13, 2009). "10 Places to Relive the '60s". U.S. News & World Report. http://www.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/real-estate/articles/2009/08/13/10-places-to-relive-the-60s.html. Retrieved 2009-12-06. "Many of the most crucial events of the 1960s—including the civil rights victories, antiwar protests, and the sweeping cultural revolution—left few physical traces." </li>
- ↑ Sanford D. Horwitt (March 22, 1998). "THE CHILDREN". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1998/03/22/RV73114.DTL. Retrieved 2009-12-06. "He notes that in the 1950s, black protests were pursued mainly through the courts and led by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In the 1960s, the emphasis was on direct action led not only by Martin Luther King Jr. but also by an unlikely array of young activists, many of them college students in Nashville, where Halberstam was a young reporter for the Tennessean at the time." </li>
- ↑ Bruce Headlam (September 16, 2009). "Capitalism’s Little Tramp". The New York Times: Movies. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/movies/20head.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2009-12-06. "HYPOCRITE. PROPAGANDIST. Egomaniac. Glutton. Exploiter. Embarrassment. Slob. These are a few of the criticisms that have been lobbed at Mr. Moore since his career began, and these are just the ones from liberals." </li>
- ↑ Stephanie Condon (May 27, 2009). "GOP Pushback Continues, With Limbaugh Calling Sotomayor A "Reverse Racist"". CBS News. http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/05/27/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5043597.shtml. Retrieved 2009-12-06. "Republican senators continued through Tuesday and Wednesday to express reservations about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, as some conservative interest groups and pundits ratcheted up the pressure for the GOP to oppose the nomination. Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich have gone so far as to call Sotomayor a "racist."" </li>
- ↑ Joel Slemrod (November 13, 2005). "'The Fairtax Book' and 'Flat Tax Revolution': 1040EZ — Really, Really EZ". The New York Times: Books. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/13/books/review/13slemrod.html. Retrieved 2009-12-06. "These two new books, both coming from the right, suggest that merely reforming the current system is too timid. The correct policy medicine, the authors say, is to junk the income tax entirely and replace it with a consumption tax with a single tax rate for all Americans." </li>
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 Trevor Hunnicutt (2008-08-17). "'Why We Hate Us' by Dick Meyer". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/c/a/2008/08/15/RVP211OU17.DTL. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "The result and chief cause of self-loathing is "the decline of organic community," Meyer writes. He points to the precipitous decline in civic participation: In 1955, for instance, the PTA had 9.5 million members (9 percent of the adult population), but the group's membership has decreased since the 1960s." </li>
- ↑ "Nation: American Scene: Participatory Democracy". Time Magazine. April 13, 1970. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,904275-1,00.html. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "As population increases and modern municipal problems intrude, many Yankee communities find that they need the expertise and steady ministration of professionals." </li>
- ↑ Associated Press (October 28, 2009). "Evangelists Target Unreligious New England: Church Planters Attempt to Persuade Northeast's Non-Believers". CBS News. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/28/national/main5433351.shtml. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "Dead churches are a familiar story in New England, which recent surveys indicate is now the least religious region in the country." </li>
- ↑ 22.00 22.01 22.02 22.03 22.04 22.05 22.06 22.07 22.08 22.09 22.10 22.11 Arlie Russell Hochschild (February 2001). "A Generation Without Public Passion". The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200102/hochschild. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "That young people's commitment to improving society has faded may turn out to be the most significant fact about the Clinton years." </li>
- ↑ Charles Murray (March 25, 2009). "Europe Syndrome: The trouble with taking the trouble out of everything". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123793074783930483.html#articleTabs%3Darticle. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "But that's not what happened when the U.S. welfare state expanded. We have seen growing legions of children raised in unimaginably awful circumstances, not because of material poverty but because of Wikipedia:dysfunctional families, and the collapse of functioning neighborhoods into Hobbesian all-against-all free-fire zones." </li>
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Paula Span (November 20, 2005). "JERSEY; An Exercise In Community". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D04EFD8113EF933A15752C1A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "A few years ago, in an influential book called Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard, warned of the decline in civic engagement, the loss of social capital that keeps neighborhoods and towns vital." </li>
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 Christopher Farrell (reviewer) (2009-11-27). "BOWLING ALONE: The Collapse and Revival of American Community By Robert D. Putnam". Business Week. http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_26/b3687063.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "Americans are less engaged in their communities now than at any time in the past century, argues Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. For the first two-thirds of the 20th century, Americans were deeply involved in their neighborhoods, towns, and cities. But over the past three decades, baby boomers, Gen Xers, and younger generations have gradually withdrawn from civic life." </li>
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 George James (February 16, 1997). "The Venerable History of Incivility". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/16/nyregion/the-venerable-history-of-incivility.html. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "When Alexis de Tocqueville toured America in the mid-1830's, Professor Barber said, he was impressed with the local spirit of liberty and the powerful participation of citizens in local government, whether at a New England town meeting or a gathering of settlers at a frontier fort." </li>
- ↑ William J. Bennett (September 8, 2002). "Reflections on an America Transformed". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/08/opinion/reflections-on-an-america-transformed.html?pagewanted=4. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "Since 1960, what I call the index of leading cultural indicators has tracked depressing changes in American society, from a rise in family breakdowns to a decline in civic participation. These trends led many to question the strength of American character." </li>
- ↑ "Smithfield Calendar (December 2009)". Town of Smithfield, Rhode Island. 2009-12-06. http://www.smithfieldri.com/NCalHTML/NetCal.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-06. </li>
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 Town of Casco, Maine. Town of Casco, Maine (website). URL accessed on 2009-12-06.
- ↑ Katie Couric (August 12, 2009). "Katie Couric's Notebook: Town Halls". CBS News. http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/couricandco/main500803.shtml?keyword=meeting. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "In the 19th Century, the French writer de Tocqueville came to America to see democracy in action and he witnessed its purest form – the New England town meeting. Townspeople came together to govern their communities. And de Tocqueville said town meetings teach people how to use democracy, and how to enjoy it." </li>
- ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.3 31.4 31.5 31.6 31.7 31.8 31.9 Renee Montagne, Steve Inskeep, guests (June 9, 2005). "Efforts to Bring More Jurors to the Courthouse". National Public Radio (NPR). http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4695884. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "The Constitution says in Article III, all criminal cases, say, for impeachment shall be tried to a jury. So the jury is in the very separation of powers. The jury is a direct democracy. It's the New England town meeting writ large. It's the people themselves governing." </li> </ol>
- ↑ Wikipedia:Jean Bethke Elshtain (1996-10-29). "Democracy at Century's End (speech)". Brigham Young University. http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=1055. Retrieved 2009-12-04. "The Times noted a "turn inward" and a lack of any "clear direction in the public's political thinking other than frustration with the current system and an eager responsiveness to alternative political solutions and appeals" ("U.S. Voters Focus on Selves, Poll Says," New York Times, 21 September 1994, p. A-21). Manifestations of voter frustration included growing disidentification with either of the major parties and massive political rootlessness among the young tethered to historically high rates of pessimism about the future." </li>
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