Civic Literacy: How Informed Citizens Make Democracy WorkScholars, pundits, and politicians, both in the US and abroad, have warned of a decline in citizen involvement in public life. Many (following the lead of Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone) have focused on the "social capital" allegedly created by the participation of citizens in a wide range of voluntary associations. But Henry Milner, a noted scholar of comparative politics, argues that a society's level of civic literacy -- the knowledge and capacity of citizens to make sense of their political world -- offers a better basis for understanding the civil societies of disparate cultures, and comparing the effectiveness of their democratic institutions. In a clear, accessible style, Milner marshals a wealth of data from the US, Canada, western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand to show how civic literacy underpins effective democracies. Masterfully weaving together philosophical debates over citizenship and community with the empirical findings of social scientists and his own first-hand experience of a variety of cultures, Milner shows that a population's degree of civic literacy is the single best predictor of its level of political participation. Drawing on the experience of the high civic literacy societies of Northern Europe, he sets out a series of policies -- policies linked to the role of the media, to adult and civic education, and to the informativeness of partisan political debate -- that lay the groundwork for the exercise of the responsibilities of citizenship in the 21st century. |
Contents
Civic Engagement and Social Capital II | 11 |
Civic Engagement and Political Participation | 25 |
Political Participation and Political Knowledge | 38 |
Sources of Civic Literacy | 51 |
Political Participation and Political Institutions | 66 |
Civic Literacy and Political Institutions | 78 |
Civic Literacy and the Media | 90 |
Policy Choices Promoting Civic Literacy | 105 |
Promoting Civic Literacy through Adult Education | 117 |
ΙΟ The Case of New Zealand | 134 |
Civic Literacy and Socioeconomic Outcomes | 145 |
Civic Literacy and the Foundations of the Sustainable | 161 |
The Future of the Sustainable Welfare State | 178 |
The CSES Questions on Political Knowledge | 191 |
Common terms and phrases
activities adult education aggregate American Political Science analysis Australia average turnout campaign Canada Canadian candidates chapter citizens Civic Education civic engagement civic literacy commercial comparative compulsory voting consensual Corporatism corporatist cultural decline Democracy Denmark differences dimension economic ECPR effect electoral system Eurobarometer European Union example factors figure Finland FPTP France Germany Gini groups high-civic-literacy IALS identify income indicators inequality interest Internet interpersonal trust labor levels of civic litical majoritarian membership municipal national elections Netherlands newspaper Nordic countries Norway OECD organizations outcomes overall percent political information political institutions political knowledge political participation political parties Political Science Association polls population programs proportion Putnam questions reader reading relationship responses Scandinavian score social capital societies study circles survey Sweden Swedish Switzerland television tion TV dependency Umeå United voter turnout watching World Values Survey Zealand
References to this book
Changing Images of Civil Society: From Protest to Government Bruno Jobert,Beate Kohler-Koch No preview available - 2008 |
Changing Images of Civil Society: From Protest to Government Bruno Jobert,Beate Kohler-Koch No preview available - 2008 |