The Good Citizen: How a Younger Generation Is Reshaping American Politics

by Russell J. Dalton

ABOUT THE REVISED EDITION Before the Iowa caucuses, nearly all political analysts believed that the Obama campaign strategy of targeting young Americans was doomed to failure. His election win proved the detractors wrong.

In a new epilogue of The Good Citizen, focusing on the 2008 presidential election, Russell Dalton answers questions that are sure to resonate with your students and provide great fodder for lively ABOUT THE GOOD CITIZEN There has been a growing chorus of political analysts with doomsday predictions of an American public that is uncivil, disengaged, and alienated. And it’s only getting worse with a younger generation of Americans who do not see the value in voting.

The good news is that the bad news is wrong.

Russell Dalton uses a new set of national public opinion surveys to show how Americans are changing their views on what good citizenship means. It’s not about recreating the halcyon politics of a generation ago, but recognition that new patterns of citizenship call for new processes and new institutions that reflect the values of the contemporary American public. Trends in participation, tolerance, and policy priorities reflect a younger generation that is more engaged, more tolerant, and more supportive of social justice. The Good Citizen shows how a younger generation is creating new norms of citizenship that are leading to a renaissance of democratic participation. An important comparative chapter in the book showcases cross-national comparisons that further demonstrate the vitality of American democracy.

This book will reshape how we think about the American public, American youth, and the prospects for contemporary democracy.  
Interview from ′Midday Utah′ which airs on KCPW.
Interview air February 22, 2008.
Interview from ′The Daily Debrief with Amy Morris′ which airs on FederalNewsRadio AM 1050.
Interview air June 21, 2007.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, Politics

256 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2007

About the author

Russell J. Dalton is Professor of Political Science and Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California, Irvine. He has received a Fulbright Professorship at the University of Mannheim, a Barbra Streisand Center fellowship, German Marshall Research Fellowship and a POSCO Fellowship at the East/West Center. His scholarly interests include comparative political behavior, political parties, social movements, and empirical democratic theory.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

It had some interesting points, but the gist could have really been boiled down into a simple short article. It was way too long and unnecessarily repetitive, and most of what was said was entirely common sense.

[Queena · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is literally so bad. It’s written fine but it’s so repetitive. It’s trying to convince me of some thing I already know. It’s an entire investigation into a correlation framed as a causation although the link is never made. What is the relevance of this framework? There were a lot of larger points that needed to be connected. I’m not saying that what he said is wrong but I’m just saying what’s the point and why did he need to say it? I wish I hadn’t read this book but I had to for a class

[Joshua Lang · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was very boring. There were so many graphs, which are interesting, but they all essentially say the same thing. This book was required reading in college and so hard to get through. This book could have been a 10 page paper, the same point was made over and over and over and over again.

[Lily Borovets]

the author introduced an interesting model for citizenship - duty/engaged citizenship. I wonder, how this tendency has changed since the book was published.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll admit I couldn't get much past the absurd and entirely whimsical comparison of Richard Lugar and Angelina Jolie that begins chapter 3. So I'm adding an extra star our of curtesy. The dichotomy of duty-based vs engaged citizen on which Dalton's argument depends seems intuitively and empirically false. I get it that he doesn't like Bush. Not many people did. But really.

There are better discussions of civic engagement in the digital age. This one doesn't add much to an important topic for our time.

[Wesley · Rating 1 out of 5]

One star feels generous.
For an academic, this book is not academic, but tends to rely on feelings, and overly optimistic justifications. It is held together with somewhat questionable statistics. Flawed, and repetitive argument.
Forced to read for a 100-level political science course.
Don't bother.

[Keelah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. Repetitive. Argument flawed when both dependent and independent variables can be explained by spurious relationships (e.g., partisanship, ideology, socio-economic characteristics...).

Much of the statements he made were already well known general knowledge. Contributes nothing particularly important to the topic of citizenship.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting empirical study of political participation among young people in the United States. Suggests that democracy and citizenship is not in decline but only changing toward a more participatory approach that emphasizes social justice.

[arranz · Rating 3 out of 5]

book for an university course, so I've read it completely against the clock. Interesting but very repetitive, the conclusions are very useful although the theme of tolerance is a bit weak. Overall, I liked it and it has very, very interesting graphics.

[Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Data-rich, but there are some errors in presentation and disclosure. Also, sometimes I felt he wasn't telling a compelling story with his numbers.

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the premise of the book a lot more than I liked the actual book. He includes some interesting findings from his research but the book becomes rather repetitive in many spots.

[Chris Cooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dalton picks apart the status quo, and brings new concepts to the field of political science. Although Dalton's statistical evidence is at question, the concept of citizenship remains a new idea.

[Laura Petto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flawed argument; definitions of engaged vs duty citizens overlap a bit and have underlying party-based definitions. Very liberal bias.