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History of citizenship in the USA

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History of citizenship in the USA
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There is no 'anti-Anarchism' tag yet, but this might well deserve one. If you don't feel in the mood for mentally combating a POV No-Man's Zone mined with steaming piles of fascist BS dotted with the occasional liberal sentiment to salve the writer's conscience, then read no further. But it is very interesting reading for those who want to see firsthand how utterly detached is the thinking of that portion of the intelligentsia that pads obediently at the side of the rulers'. Or grin at their mournful musings, styling the public's disillusionment with the political system combined with the logical outcome of Capitalism's lack of ethics as instead, a diminishment of civic responsibility. Just as one example. This was nominated for deletion on WP because, imo, it is actually a little right of their center

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

Black and white picture of perhaps 30 people dressed, outdoors, happy, with American flag on pole in background.
120,000 Japanese-Americans, of which roughly 60% were technically documented American "citizens", spent Wikipedia:World War II as prisoners in internment camps like this one in Wikipedia:Arizona.

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:


"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. To this end, if you would forestall this moment of democratic despotism, civic spaces between citizens and the state would need to be secured and nourished. Only many small-scale civic bodies would enable citizens to cultivate the democratic virtues and to play an active role in their communities. These civic bodies would be in and of the community—not governmentally derived, not creatures of the state.[6]"

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.

Picture of a street protest scene, with people lying down in a street, surrounded by police, onlookers, and stores in a big city.
Activists are pressured to stage bizarre protests to win media attention to try to win the support of the public; at the Republican National Convention in Manhattan in 2004, protesters lie down on a busy street as an act of Wikipedia:civil disobedience.

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 disengagement by twenty-somethings–1970s vs 1990s
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]

Scholarly discussion of citizen roles

Jürgen Habermas

Democracy theorists such as philosopher and sociologist Wikipedia:Jürgen Habermas have studied how the space for citizenship called the Wikipedia:public sphere has been shrinking

Explanations by philosophers such as Wikipedia:Jürgen Habermas in his book the Wikipedia:Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere are confirmed by events in the media. Today, in contrast to colonial times, there is scant public debate, few public forums, and political discussion has degenerated from a fact-based rational-critical examination of public matters into a consumer commodity. There is the illusion of a public sphere, according to Habermas, who argues that citizens have become consumers, investors, and workers. Real news (information which helps free people stay free) is being elbowed out by advice, Wikipedia:soft-porn, catchy garbage, celebrity antics, and has become Wikipedia:infotainment, that is, a commodity competing in a mass entertainment market. It matters less whether news is right or wrong, and matters more whether it's gripping.[32] According to Habermas, a variety of factors resulted in the eventual decay of the Wikipedia:public sphere, including the growth of a commercial Wikipedia:mass media, which turned the critical public into a passive consumer public; and the welfare state, which merged the state with society so thoroughly that the public sphere was squeezed out. It also turned the "public sphere" into a site of self-interested political brawl for state resources rather than a space for a public-minded rational consensus. And it turned real citizens into consumers.

Benjamin Ginsberg and Matthew Crenson

Johns Hopkins Wikipedia:political scientist Benjamin Ginsberg along with co-author Matthew Crenson offers a different interpretation about why citizenship expanded to different groups such as minorities and women. Ginsberg thinks government used tactics such as extending rights of modern Wikipedia:citizenship to minorities and women as well as encouraging Wikipedia:voting as a deliberate alternative to more dangerous unwanted protests, such as strike action (striking) (WP) or Wikipedia:rioting; expanding citizenship, in his view, was a method to tame a wary public.[33] He wrote: "To vote meant not to strike or riot," and the state preferred citizens to vote rather than have more serious challenges to its power such as Wikipedia:lawsuits, Wikipedia:protests, organizing, Wikipedia:parliamentary procedure, or Wikipedia:lobbying.[33] Since elections happen periodically, they limit citizen participation in politics to merely the selection of leaders and keep people away from policy formation.[33] Ginsberg agreed there was dwindling civic participation in America and he chronicled a pattern of reduced interest in civic groups, using diminished Wikipedia:Lions Club attendance from the 1970s to 2004, as an example of the "decline of mass political participation."[34] Ginsberg argued that civic decline is "not simply a consequence of the decay of civil society brought on by TV, Wikipedia:suburbanization and busy lives."[34] "Citizens became less vigilant and involved, and interests like the banks and Wikipedia:railroads came to control the very commissions that were supposed to work on behalf of the public good."[34] Ginsberg criticized "statutes and judicial rulings" for making advocacy by litigation commonplace, and effectively removing many issues from the political arena.[34] Authors Ginsberg and Crenson charted the declining importance of citizenship in America.[35] People are better described as Wikipedia:consumers, not Wikipedia:citizens and no longer embrace civic responsibility or bother to vote and the public has chosen to stay aloof from government which is seen as "another service provider."[35] Candidates use polls to focus on the dwindling number of persons who actually show up to vote.[35]

Increasing court involvement is blamed, as well, for diminishing the role of public sentiment, and the authors see the 1960s Wikipedia:civil rights movement as having morphed into a litigation struggle about rights and a middle class prerogative.[35][36] They argue that citizens, who used to be the "backbone of the western state," are no longer relevant.[36] While government has grown, influential citizens have been reduced to mere recipients of government services and "marginalized as political actors."[36] Government can raise an army and collect taxes without widespread public support; the Wikipedia:withholding tax has made the voluntary component of tax paying less important; a professional military limits the need for citizen soldiers; Wikipedia:special interests provide Wikipedia:bureaucrats with a substitute for public support.[36] The authors blame, in part, Wikipedia:Progressive Era reforms such as Wikipedia:primaries and recalls and Wikipedia:referendums as weakening the parties' ability to mobilize voters.[36] Neither party has much enthusiasm for mobilizing more voters.[36] Ginsberg and Crenson think that increased litigation, caused by lowering the requirements for class-action lawsuits, benefits Wikipedia:special interests who can cause changes beneficial to them without having to energize apathetic voters.[36] Ginsberg sees public opinion polling as a "subtle instrument of power" since it renders opinions "less dangerous, less disruptive, more permissive, and, perhaps, more amenable to governmental control."[33] He sees policy based not on mass opinion but on managing mass opinion, a kind of giant public relations (WP) project.[33] Ginsberg has criticized the Washington political climate as "toxic", characterized by a "cycle of attack and counterattack" in which minor indiscretions are used as political weapons.[37]

Generally, about half of eligible voters vote in presidential elections, although the 2008 election, which featured no incumbents, had a higher turnout of 62%. Turnout for primary elections is even lower. While Ginsberg sees voting as a passive and meaningless act which gives the illusion of public control over government, he sometimes criticizes both political parties as having a "resistance" to sincerely working towards increased voter participation.[38] One newspaper reporter, writing about low Wikipedia:voter turnout in 1998, suggested there was a "deep-rooted resistance within both parties to expanding the national electorate," and quoted Ginsberg as saying "Politicians who have risen to power in a low-turnout political environment have little to gain and much to fear from an expanded electorate."[38]

Ginsberg argued that citizenship has been undermined by a move to a voluntary military. He believes citizen participation in the military is good since it strengthens patriotism, which means "sacrifice and a willingness to die for one's country."[39] But the switch to a voluntary military eliminates "a powerful patriotic framework" since "instead of a disgruntled army of citizen soldiers, the military seems to be consisted of professional soldiers and private contractors."[39] Ginsberg suggested that the "government learned the lessons of Vietnam and has found ways to insulate the use of military force" from society.[39] Ginsberg criticized American leaders for trying to wage war on Wikipedia:terrorism without any sacrifice from citizens: "U.S. leaders have pleaded for what can best be described as defiant normalcy–living, spending and consuming to show that terrorists won't change the American way of life," according to a reporter commenting on Ginsberg's views.[39] Ginsberg suggested American political parties have less and less influence.[40]

Robert D. Kaplan

Wikipedia:Robert D. Kaplan in Wikipedia:The Atlantic offers a different viewpoint. He agreed the domain of politics in America is shrinking.[2] He described how many city spaces are designed not to meet citizens' needs but to serve corporate ends.[2] He linked the decline of political participation with mass culture, consistent with the analysis by Habermas. Kaplan wrote: "We have become voyeurs and escapists ... it is because people find so little in themselves that they fill their world with celebrities ... The masses avoid important national and international news because much of it is tragic, even as they show an unlimited appetite for the details of Princess Diana's death. This willingness to give up self and responsibility is the sine qua non for tyranny."[2]

While political participation in terms of voting has been declining steadily, Kaplan argued, in contrast to Ginsberg and Crenson, that there are substantial benefits in some respects to non-participation; he wrote "the very indifference of most people allows for a calm and healthy political climate."[2] He elaborated: "Apathy, after all, often means that the political situation is healthy enough to be ignored. The last thing America needs is more voters–particularly badly educated and alienated ones–with a passion for politics."[2] He argues that civic participation, in itself, is not always a sufficient condition to bring good outcomes; he argues against bringing democracy to poor countries torn by ethnic violence and marred by illiteracy since the freedom to debate and vote often results in more fractiousness. He points to Wikipedia:Singapore as an authoritarian model which, because it emphasized "relative safety from corruption, from breach of contract, from property expropriation, and from bureaucratic inefficiency", it prospered; Kaplan asks "Doesn't liberation from filth and privation count as a human right?"[41] And in 21st century America, with an integrated and robust and growing worldwide economy, there are numerous opportunities to make money and, as a result, have freedom to buy a huge assortment of consumer goods, and not be dependent on citizens or neighbors. If citizens have become consumers, there are positive parts of this, although the risk remains that when people no longer participate in government, there are increased chances for Wikipedia:oligarchy or Wikipedia:tyranny such as what happened to Wikipedia:ancient Athens or the ancient Roman republic.[42]

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ 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
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Robert D. Kaplan (1997-12-01). "Was Democracy Just a Moment?". The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97dec/democ.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "Then there are malls, with their own rules and security forces, as opposed to public streets; private health clubs as opposed to public playgrounds; incorporated suburbs with strict zoning; and other mundane aspects of daily existence in which–perhaps without realizing it, because the changes have been so gradual–we opt out of the public sphere and the "social contract" for the sake of a protected setting." </li>
  3. ↑ "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>
  4. ↑ 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>
  5. ↑ 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. ↑ 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. ↑ 7.0 7.1 http://www.govexec.com/features/0197s4.htm
  8. ↑ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25446136/
  9. ↑ "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. ↑ 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. ↑ 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. ↑ 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.
  13. ↑ 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>
  14. ↑ 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>
  15. ↑ 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>
  16. ↑ 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>
  17. ↑ 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>
  18. ↑ 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. ↑ 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>
  20. ↑ "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>
  21. ↑ 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. ↑ 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>
  23. ↑ 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. ↑ 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. ↑ 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. ↑ 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>
  27. ↑ 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>
  28. ↑ "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. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Town of Casco, Maine. Town of Casco, Maine (website). URL accessed on 2009-12-06.
  30. ↑ 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. ↑ 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>
  32. ↑ After Habermas: New Perspectives on the Public Sphere (Sociological Review Monograph). citeulike.com. URL accessed on 2009-10-11.
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 33.4 Mark Crispin Miller (February 8, 1987). "SUCKERS FOR ELECTIONS (book review)". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/08/books/suckers-for-elections.html. Retrieved 2009-10-29. "review of: THE CAPTIVE PUBLIC How Mass Opinion Promotes State Power. By Benjamin Ginsberg" </li>
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 Associated Press (6/5/2004). "Americans participating less and less in civic life". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-06-05-bystander-nation_x.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-29. "But the decline of mass political participation is not simply a consequence of the decay of civil society brought on by TV, suburbanization and busy lives." </li>
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 35.3 Kerry Lauerman (November 3, 2002). "Polls Apart". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49166-2002Oct31?language=printer. Retrieved 2009-10-29. "review of: DOWNSIZING DEMOCRACY: How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public, By Matthew A. Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg" </li>
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 36.2 36.3 36.4 36.5 36.6 Robert Heineman (2002). "Downsizing Democracy: How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public (book review)". The Independent Review (quarterly journal). http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?a=221. Retrieved 2009-10-29. "Crenson and Ginsberg argue that as government has burgeoned, Americans have been transformed from citizens who are effective political participants into customers who are recipients of government services." </li>
  37. ↑ Ronald Brownstein (January 10, 2001). "Bush's Call for Civil Tone Gets Rude Response". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jan/10/news/mn-10554. Retrieved 2009-10-29. "(Washington's toxic climate) ... It is structural, in other words, not personal" </li>
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Robert Shogan (May 4, 1998). "Politicians Embrace Status Quo as Nonvoter Numbers Grow". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1998/may/04/news/mn-46261. Retrieved 2009-10-29. "Politicians who have risen to power in a low-turnout political environment have little to gain and much to fear from an expanded electorate, said Ben Ginsberg" </li>
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 39.2 39.3 Chuck Raasch, Gannett News Service (7/3/2004). "What does it mean to be a patriot?". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/2004-07-03-patriotism_x.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-29. "Patriotism, in part, means sacrifice and a willingness to die for one's country, said Benjamin Ginsberg, a Johns Hopkins University political scientist and co-author of Downsizing Democracy." </li>
  40. ↑ ROBERT SHOGAN (May 5, 1994). "POLITICS - Shad and Senate Candidates Both Feeling the Heat in Virginia - State's contentious slate converges on bipartisan fish cookout. The voters smell desperation campaigning". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1994-05-05/news/mn-54196_1_political-parties. Retrieved 2009-10-29. "Parties mean less and less, and each so-called party is breaking up into various wings." </li>
  41. ↑ Robert D. Kaplan (1997-12-01). "Was Democracy Just a Moment?". The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97dec/democ.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "Lee Kuan Yew's offensive neo-authoritarianism ... is paternalistic, meritocratic, and decidedly undemocratic, has forged prosperity from abject poverty ... Doesn't liberation from filth and privation count as a human right? Jeffrey Sachs ... writes that "good government" means relative safety from corruption, from breach of contract, from property expropriation, and from bureaucratic inefficiency." </li>
  42. ↑ Robert D. Kaplan (1997-12-01). "Was Democracy Just a Moment?". The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97dec/democ.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-27. "...that democracy in the United States is at greater risk than ever before, and from obscure sources; and that many future regimes, ours especially, could resemble the oligarchies of ancient Athens and Sparta more than they do the current government in Washington." </li> </ol>

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