Citizen Democracy: Political Activists in a Cynical Age FROM THE PUBLISHER
Apathy and antipathy toward politics are epidemic. "Citizen Democracy" provides the antidote. Through a series of nineteen carefully chosen vignettes, Stephen Frantzich portrays citizens from every walk of life-rich and poor, old and young, black and white, male and female, left and right, famous and obscure-as they choose to become involved in politics at a level to which readers can relate. Some of the stories contain unexpected twists. Candy Lightner, the founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, now works as a liquor industry lobbyist and argues that MADD has gone too far. College freshman Gregory Watson reacted to receiving a "C" on a political science paper by quitting school and becoming the driving force behind passage of a constitutional amendment that had been the subject of his paper. Two young women independently wrote letters of application to the U.S. Naval Academy and in the process moved military education in the direction of gender neutrality. "Citizen Democracy" shows ordinary people engaged in extraordinary civic activity. Their causes run the gamut from civil rights to flag burning, from the Internet to the international fronts of landmines and the UN-but their common cause is the fact that they creatively entered the arena of national public policy making and made a difference.
Author Biography: Stephen E. Frantzich is professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at the U.S. Naval Academy.
SYNOPSIS
Hoping to counter political cynicism among his students and readers, Frantzich (political science, U.S. Naval Academy) profiles a variety of individuals who have intervened in the U.S. political process in order to promote their policy preferences. He has chosen his profiles in order to demonstrate the range of entry points into the process, describing efforts to change public opinion, the founding of interest groups, political campaigns, congressional letter writing activities, referendum campaigns, judicial suits, and other activities. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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