Turning strangers into political friends
by Danielle Allen
In These Times
12/23/04
One study after another has reported declines in U.S. citizens' trust of their government and other institutions of authority since the '60s. Most recently the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center announced that whereas 53 percent of U.S. citizens in 1964 thought 'most people can be trusted,' by 2002 only 35 percent of them thought so. John Hart Ely wrote in Democracy and Distrust that the continuance of democracy depends on the meticulous cultivation among citizens of distrust in government. We should all, he argues, be so many jumpy watchdogs. On one level he's right. We citizens should cast a skeptical eye on all claims made by governing officials and hold them accountable for choices good and ill...
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1777/
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
In These Times
12/23/04
One study after another has reported declines in U.S. citizens' trust of their government and other institutions of authority since the '60s. Most recently the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center announced that whereas 53 percent of U.S. citizens in 1964 thought 'most people can be trusted,' by 2002 only 35 percent of them thought so. John Hart Ely wrote in Democracy and Distrust that the continuance of democracy depends on the meticulous cultivation among citizens of distrust in government. We should all, he argues, be so many jumpy watchdogs. On one level he's right. We citizens should cast a skeptical eye on all claims made by governing officials and hold them accountable for choices good and ill...
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1777/
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
Starmail - 25. Dez, 10:27
