Stealth Democracy: Americans' Beliefs About How Government Should Work

by John R. Hibbing , Elizabeth Theiss-Morse

• ISBN13: 9780521009867
• ISBN10: 0521009863
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-10-07
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	xi
List of Tables	xii
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	1	(14)
PART I: THE BENEFITS OF STUDYING THE PROCESSES PEOPLE WANT
Policy Space and American Politics	15	(21)
Process Space: An Introduction	36	(25)
Using Process Space to Explain Features of American Politics	61	(26)
PART II: THE PROCESSES PEOPLE WANT
Attitudes toward Specific Processes	87	(20)
Public Assessments of People and Politicians	107	(22)
Americans' Desire for Stealth Democracy	129	(34)
PART III: SHOULD PEOPLE BE GIVEN THE PROCESSES THEY WANT?
Popular Deliberation and Group Involvement in Theory	163	(20)
The Realities of Popular Deliberation and Group Involvement	183	(26)
Improving Government and People's Attitudes toward It	209	(20)
Epilogue	229	(17)
Appendix A	246	(9)
Appendix B	255	(2)
References	257	(18)
Index	275