Why read Making Democracy Work?

Book cover of Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy

Book description

Why do some democratic governments succeed and others fail? In a book that has received attention from policymakers and civic activists in America and around the world, Robert Putnam and his collaborators offer empirical evidence for the importance of "civic community" in developing successful institutions. Their focus is on a…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Making Democracy Work as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Gerard A. Hauser

Author

Putnam and his Italian colleagues studied the performance of Italy’s regional governments over a 20-year period. They asked why some democratic governments succeeded while others failed. They thought differences in success would correlate with a region’s economic vitality. Instead, they found that a strong civic community was a better indicator of success. When citizens sought information from reliable news sources, they tended to interact with one another on political matters. Informed interaction encouraged trust in political dialogue and encouraged engagement in public affairs.

Equally, when citizens had access to networks of secondary associations, where they interacted with strangers, they were…

From Gerard's list on The best books on why ordinary citizen voices matter to a democracy.