Democracies in Flux

The editor of this volume, Robert D. Putnam, is Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. He is the founder of the Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America, a program that has brought together leading practitioners and thinkers for a multi-year discussion to look for ways to develop civic life. The author has received renown and media attention for his previous work on civil society. Putnam's work on the relationship between civil society and democracy led not only to consultations with former President Clinton and President Bush, and the subsequently heavy influence he exercised on two of Clinton's State of the Union addresses, but also to a profile in People magazine. His work has sparked forums among academics for debates on civic engagement. He regularly speaks to audiences of 3 to 500 people about his ideas.

• 1. Introduction ; 2. Great Britain: The Role of Government and the Distribution of Social Capital ; 3. The United States: Bridging the Privileged and the Marginalised ; 4. United States ; 5. France: The Privatisation of Social Capital ; 6. Germany ; 7. Spain: 'Civil War' to 'Civil Society' ; 8. Sweden: Social Capital in the Social Democratic State ; 9. Australia ; 10. Japan: Social Capital Goes with Particularistic Social Relations

"Putnam's thesis, about the virtue of connectiveness, gains here much additional depth. We see it in a comparative, cross-cultural perspective, with each study illuminating all others. A masterpiece of social science." -- Amitai Etzioni, author of The New Golden Rule"A grand tour of our times--elegant, exciting and unsettling. Democracies in Flux maps the vitality of civil society in eight industrial nations. Their experiences--sometimes similar, often entirely different--add up to a vivid report on the health of democracy in a global era." -- James Morone, author of The Democratic Wish and Hellfire Nation