Conversations of Democracy

Stephen Frantzich is professor political science at the U.S. Naval Academy. The author of over twenty books, he travels internationally speaking on civic engagement and the impact of technology on politics. He serves as a consultant to the U.S. Congress, Center on Civic Education, C-SPAN and a variety of foreign governments. As the President of Books for International Goodwill (www.big-books.org) he has facilitated the distribution over 4 million books to underserved populations worldwide.

• chapterOne Politics and Democracy as Conversation; chapterTwo Characteristics of a Good Conversation; chapterThree Conversational Strategies; chapterFour The Value of Conversation in a Democracy; chapterFive The Informational Requirements of a Good Conversation; chapterSix The Social Setting of Contemporary Conversation; chapterSeven The Language of Political Conversation; chapterEight The New Technology of Conversation; chapterNine Institutionalized Conversation; chapterTen Beyond Talking;

"For over three decades C-SPAN has attempted to improve America’s political conversation. Steve Frantzich takes the idea of multi-level conversations as the key defining element of democratic politics. In the process, he shows how the principles of good conversations are used and abused in contemporary political conversation." --Brian Lamb, Founder of C-SPAN "Frantzich has written an engaging book about one of the foundations of healthy democracy: talking with one another about politics and pursuing constructive, deliberative public dialogue. Frantzich has crafted an accessible book that draws on secondary studies to develop a conversation with readers…This pragmatic how-to book fits in nicely with other books that address the erosion of basic democracy and link this erosion to declining social capital, hyperindividualism, and the shrinkage of community activity…Recommended.” --CHOICE August 2011 Vol 48 No. 11