American Democracy by Andrew J Perrin

American Democracy by Andrew J Perrin

In this groundbreaking book, sociologist Andrew Perrin shows that rules and institutions, while important, are not the core of democracy. Instead, as Alexis de Tocqueville showed in the early years of the American republic, democracy is first and foremost a matter of culture: the shared ideas, practices, and technologies that help individuals combine into publics and achieve representation. Reinterpreting democracy as culture reveals the ways the media, public opinion polling, and changing technologies shape democracy and citizenship. As Perrin shows, the founders of the United States produced a social, cultural, and legal environment fertile for democratic development and in the two centuries since, citizens and publics use that environment and shared culture to re-imagine and extend that democracy.

American Democracy provides a fresh, innovative approach to democracy that will change the way readers understand their roles as citizens and participants. Never will you enter a voting booth or answer a poll again without realizing what a truly social act it is. This will be necessary reading for scholars, students, and the public seeking to understand the challenges and opportunities for democratic citizenship from Toqueville to town halls to Twitter.

''Written with uncommon imagination, this beautifully-realized book challenges too narrow a focus on formal institutions and the electoral processWritten in the spirit of Tocqueville as a sociology of democracy and of Habermas as a probe of the public realm, it deepens our understanding of the foundations of democratic culture, including civic values and the patterns of communication, association, and action that give shape and meaning to democratic citizenship.''
Ira Katznelson, Columbia University

''In this bold reconceptualization of American democracy, Andrew Perrin introduces what he correctly calls a new sociology of publics. Perrin draws our attention to the dynamism inherent in American democracy by showing how democracy is learned and practiced as citizens interact with institutions. An important contribution that will inspire fresh thinking about what sustains democratic practice in the United States and how it might be re-energized.''
Margaret Weir, University of California Berkeley

Andrew J. Perrin is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780745662329
ISBN 10	0745662323
Title	American Democracy
Author	Andrew J Perrin
Series	Political Sociology
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Year published	2014-02-21
Number of pages	248
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.