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It is a notable irony that as democracy replaces other forms of governing throughout the world, citizens of the most established and prosperous democracies (the United States and Canada, Western European nations, and Japan) increasingly report dissatisfaction and frustration with their governments. Here, some of the most influential political scientists at work today examine why this is so in a volume unique in both its publication of original data and its conclusion that low public confidence in democratic leaders and institutions is a function of actual performance, changing expectations, and the role of information.
The culmination of research projects directed by Robert Putnam through the Trilateral Commission and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, these papers present new data that allow more direct comparisons across national borders and more detailed pictures of trends within countries than previously possible. They show that citizen disaffection in the Trilateral democracies is not the result of frayed social fabric, economic insecurity, the end of the Cold War, or public cynicism. Rather, the contributors conclude, the trouble lies with governments and politics themselves. The sources of the problem include governments' diminished capacity to act in an interdependent world and a decline in institutional performance, in combination with new public expectations and uses of information that have altered the criteria by which people judge their governments.
Although the authors diverge in approach, ideological affinity, and interpretation, they adhere to a unified framework and confine themselves to the last quarter of the twentieth century. This focus--together with the wealth of original research results and the uniform strength of the individual chapters--sets the volume above other efforts to address the important and increasingly international question of public dissatisfaction with democratic governance. This book will have obvious appeal for a broad audience of political scientists, politicians, policy wonks, and that still sizable group of politically minded citizens on both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific.
List of contents
List of Tables and Figures ix Preface Susan J. Pharr and Robert D. Putnam xv Foreword Samuel P. Huntington xxiii CHAPTER ONE Introduction: What's Troubling the Trilateral Democracies? Robert D. Putnam, Susan J. Pharr, and Russell J. Dalton 3 PART I. Declining Performance of Democratic Institutions CHAPTER TWO The Public Trust Russell Hardin 31 CHAPTER THREE Confidence in Public Institutions: Faith, Culture, or Performance? Kenneth Newton and Pippa Norris 52 CHAPTER FOUR Distrust of Government: Explaining American Exceptionalism Anthony King 74 PART II. Sources of the Problem: Declining Capacity CHAPTER FIVE Interdependence and Democratic Legitimation Fritz W Scharpf 101 CHAPTER SIX Confidence, Trust, International Relations, and Lessons from Smaller Democracies Peter J. Katzenstein 121 CHAPTER SEVEN The Economics of Civic Trust Alberto Alesina and Romain Wamiarg 149 PART III. Sources of the Problem: Erosion of Fidelity CHAPTER EIGHT Officials' Misconduct and Public Distrust: Japan and the Trilateral Democracies Susan J. Pharr 173 CHAPTER NINE Social Capital, Beliefs in Government, and Political Corruption Donatella della Porta 202 PART IV. Sources of the Problem: Cbanges in Information and Criteria of Evaluation CHAPTER TEN The Impact of Television on Civic Malaise Pippa Norris 231 CHAPTER ELEVEN Value Change and Democracy Russell J. Dalton 252 CHAPTER TWELVE Mad Cows and Social Activists: Contentious Politics in the Trilateral Democracies Sidney Tarrow 270 CHAPTER THIRTEEN Political Mistrust and Party Dealignment in Japan Hideo Otake 291 Afterword Ralf Dahrendorf 311 Appendix: The Major Cross-National Opinion Surveys Russell J. Dalton 315 Bibliograpby 319 Contributors 347 Index 349
About the author
Edited by Susan J. Pharr & Robert D. Putnam
Summary
A culmination of various research projects, this collection of papers presents data that allows direct comparisons across national borders and detailed pictures of trends within countries. It shows that citizen disaffection in the Trilateral democracies is not the result of frayed social fabric, the end of the Cold War, or public cynicism.
Additional text
"Anyone who wants to understand the state of the art on this matter should, and I hope will, read this book. There is simply no other work like it."—Robert A. Dahl, Yale University
