The Good Citizen: How a Younger Generation Is Reshaping American Politics, Revised Edition

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Before the Iowa caucuses, nearly all political analysts believed that the Obama campaign strategy of targeting young Americans was doomed to failure. His election win proved the detractors wrong. In a new epilogue of The Good Citizen, focusing on the 2008 presidential election, Russell Dalton answers questions that are sure to resonate with your readers and provide great fodder for lively discussion:Should we be surprised by Obama's appeal to the young engaged citizens? What were the sources of this appeal? Who voted for Obama in November? What are the potential long-term implications of Obama's mobilization of young Americans ABOUT THE GOOD CITIZEN There has been a growing chorus of political analysts with doomsday predictions of an American public that is uncivil, disengaged, and alienated. And it s only getting worse with a younger generation of Americans who do not see the value in voting.The good news is that the bad news is wrong.Russell Dalton uses a new set of national public opinion surveys to show how Americans are changing their views on what good citizenship means. It s not about recreating the halcyon politics of a generation ago, but recognition that new patterns of citizenship call for new processes and new institutions that reflect the values of the contemporary American public. Trends in participation, tolerance, and policy priorities reflect a younger generation that is more engaged, more tolerant, and more supportive of social justice. The Good Citizen shows how a younger generation is creating new norms of citizenship that are leading to a renaissance of democratic participation. An important comparative chapter in the book showcases cross-national comparisons that further demonstrate the vitality of American democracy.This book will reshape how we think about the American public, American youth, and the prospects for contemporary democracy.

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Russell Dalton is professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine and former director of the Center for the Study of Democracy. His research and teaching focuses on the changing nature of citizen politics in contemporary democracies. He has received a Fulbright Research Fellowship, a German Marshall Fund Fellowship, Barbra Streisand Center Fellowship and POSCO Research Fellowship. He has recently served on the boards of the American National Election Study, the British Election Study and the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. Among his recent authored or edited books are Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior (2007), Citizens, Democracy and Markets around the Pacific Rim (2006), Citizen Politics, 4th edition (2006) Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies (2004), Democracy Transformed? The Expansion of Citizen Access in Advanced Industrial Democracies (2003), and Parties without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies (co-editor, 2001).