Trends in Political and Civic Participation

From attack ads to the “wealth primary” efforts to limit participation have had impressive results.
One need only take a brief statistical tour of the past half-century to see how far we have sunk. In
the late 1950s, a landmark study of political participation in five democracies found America’s to
be the quintessential “civic culture” probably unparalleled anywhere else in the world.
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 While the
United States still stands out by international standards both for its opportunities to participate
and for the willingness of everyday citizens to do so, the nation is at a post-World War II civic
nadir. By virtually every measure of political participation, Americans today lag far behind their
forebears.
That general statement itself contains two even more ominous facts. First, the participation deficit
is most pronounced among young and middle-aged citizens. Second, the forms of participation
that have declined the most are collective in nature.
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 That is, forms of political participation most
conducive to building social capital have withered faster than those that contribute less to norms
and networks of trust, reciprocity, and the public good.  We summarize some of the facts.