Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam - The eminent Progressive philosopher
John Dewey grappled with a conundrum that remains timely today—how to reconcile
modern, large-scale, technologically advanced society with the exigencies of
democracy. “Fraternity, liberty and equality isolated from communal life are
hopeless abstractions…. Democracy must begin at home, and its home is the
neighborly community.” “Only in local, face-to-face associations,” adds Dewey’s
biographer Robert Westbrook, “could members of a public participate in
dialogues with their fellows, and such dialogues were crucial to the formation
and organization of the public.” Externally, voluntary associations, from churches and professional societies to
Elks clubs and reading groups, allow individuals to express their interests and
demands on government and to protect themselves from abuses of power by their
political leaders. But if we have a broader conception of politics and democracy than merely the
advocacy of narrow interests, then the explosion of staff-led,
professionalized, Washington-based advocacy organizations may not be as
satisfactory, for it was in those local luncheons that civic skills were honed
and genuine give-and-take deliberation occurred. As Theda Skocpol argues:
In classic civic America, millions of ordinary men and women could interact
with one another, participate in groups side by side with the more privileged,
and exercise influence in both community and national affairs…. In recent times
the old civic America has been bypassed and shoved to the side by a gaggle of
professionally dominated advocacy groups and nonprofit institutions rarely
attached to memberships worthy of the name. Ideas of shared citizenship and
possibilities for democratic leverage have been compromised in the process.
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