Stealth Democracy: Americans' Beliefs about How Government Should Work. Cambridge Studies in Political Psychology and Public Opinion (Cambridge Studies in Public Opinion and Political Psychology)

by John R Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse

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Americans often complain about the operation of their government, but scholars have never developed a complete picture of people's preferred type of government. In this provocative and timely book, Hibbing and Theiss-Morse, employing an original national survey and focus groups, report the governmental procedures Americans desire. Contrary to the prevailing view that people want greater involvement in politics, most citizens do not care about most policies and therefore are content to turn over decision-making authority to someone else. People's wish for the political system is that decision makers be empathetic and, especially, non-self-interested, not that they be responsive and accountable to the people's largely nonexistent policy preferences or, even worse, that the people be obligated to participate directly in decision making. Hibbing and Theiss-Morse conclude by cautioning communitarians, direct democrats, social capitalists, deliberation theorists, and all those who think that greater citizen involvement is the solution to society's problems.
  • ISBN10 6610433909
  • ISBN13 9786610433902
  • Publish Date 29 August 2002
  • Publish Status Active
  • Out of Print 27 September 2011
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint Cambridge University Press
  • Format eBook
  • Pages 303
  • Language English