TY - BOOK AU - Berger,Ben TI - Attention Deficit Democracy: The Paradox of Civic Engagement SN - 9780691144689 AV - JK1764 .B465 2017 U1 - 323.0420973 23 PY - 2011///] CY - Princeton, NJ : PB - Princeton University Press, KW - Democracy KW - Political participation KW - United States KW - POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political ideologies / Democracy KW - bisacsh KW - Alexis de Tocqueville KW - Hannah Arendt KW - attention deficit KW - attention KW - civic engagement KW - civil associations KW - democracy KW - energy KW - instrumental good KW - instrumental value KW - intrinsic good KW - intrinsic value KW - invisibility KW - isolation KW - liberal democracy KW - materialism KW - moral engagement KW - participatory democracy KW - political apathy KW - political associations KW - political education KW - political engagement KW - political governance KW - political institutions KW - political mobilization KW - politics KW - public freedom KW - public philosophy KW - self-interest KW - social engagement KW - totalitarianism KW - township administration N1 - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Preface --; Chapter 1. Introduction --; Chapter 2. The rules of engagement --; Chapter 3. Political Engagement as Intrinsic Good: Arendt and Company --; Chapter 4. Political Engagement as Instrumental Good: Tocqueville, Attention Deficit, and Energy --; Chapter 5. Is Political Engagement Better Than Sex? --; Chapter 6. Conclusion: Tocqueville vs. the Full Monty --; Bibliography --; Index; restricted access; Issued also in print N2 - Handwringing about political apathy is as old as democracy itself. As early as 425 BC, the playwright Aristophanes ridiculed his fellow Athenians for gossiping in the market instead of voting. In more recent decades, calls for greater civic engagement as a democratic cure-all have met with widespread agreement. But how realistic--or helpful--is it to expect citizens to devote more attention and energy to politics? In Attention Deficit Democracy, Ben Berger provides a surprising new perspective on the problem of civic engagement, challenging idealists who aspire to revolutionize democracies and their citizens, but also taking issue with cynics who think that citizens cannot--and need not--do better. "Civic engagement" has become an unwieldy and confusing catchall, Berger argues. We should talk instead of political, social, and moral engagement, figuring out which kinds of engagement make democracy work better, and how we might promote them. Focusing on political engagement and taking Alexis de Tocqueville and Hannah Arendt as his guides, Berger identifies ways to achieve the political engagement we want and need without resorting to coercive measures such as compulsory national service or mandatory voting. By providing a realistic account of the value of political engagement and practical strategies for improving it, while avoiding proposals we can never hope to achieve, Attention Deficit Democracy makes a persuasive case for a public philosophy that much of the public can actually endorse UR - https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400840311?locatt=mode:legacy UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781400840311 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9781400840311.jpg ER -