How can you make a difference in a democracy?
In 1831, a young French aristocrat, Alexis de Tocqueville, began a nine-month tour of the United States. He wanted to learn about American democracy. As he toured the country, he was struck by the vitality of the American people and their engagement in public life.
When he returned home, Tocqueville published a book about American political life called Democracy in America. In this book, he wrote that “Americans ... constantly form associations” to get things done. They formed groups to build hospitals, schools, and churches and to carry out many other civic projects. He argued that this collective action taught Americans political skills and helped to strengthen democracy.
Many years later, in the 1990s, political scientist Robert D. Putnam looked at the role of associations in modern American life. He described quite a different country from the one Tocqueville had visited a century and a half earlier. Far fewer Americans, he found, were taking part in the kind of cooperative efforts that Tocqueville had admired.
Although Americans still joined organizations, they did so mainly as “checkbook” participants. They gave money, but not time or energy, to civic causes. “We remain ... reasonably well-informed spectators of public affairs,” Putnam wrote, “but many fewer of us actually partake in the game.”
In 2000, Putnam summarized his findings in the book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. The title underscored his concern that the United States was becoming a nation of disengaged citizens. He pointed to a sharp decline in bowling-league membership as a symbol of this change. Increasingly, Americans were choosing not to join bowling leagues, or any other group, but instead went “bowling alone.” Putnam feared the impact this lack of social engagement might have on democracy and civic life.
Are Putnam’s fears justified? Are we becoming spectators rather than players in public affairs? Keep these questions in mind as you read about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and the ways that Americans today engage in the civic and political life of their communities.