Stealth democracy Americans' beliefs about how government should work - Hibbing, John R. (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-274) and index
pt. 1. The benefits of studying the processes people want -- Policy space and American politics -- Process space: an introduction -- Using process space to explain features of American politics -- pt. 2. The processes people want -- Attitudes toward specific processes -- Public assessments of people and politicians -- Americans' desire for stealth democracy -- pt. 3. Should people be given the processes they want? -- Popular deliberation and group involvement in theory -- The realities of popular deliberation and group involvement -- Improving government and people's attitudes toward it
"Americans often complain about the current operation of their government, but scholars have never developed a complete picture of people's preferred type of government. In this provocative and timely book, John Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, employing an original national survey and focus groups, report the specific governmental procedures Americans desire. Their results are surprising. Contrary to the prevailing view that people want greater involvement in politics, most citizens do not care about most policies and therefore are content to turn over decision-making authority to someone else
People's most intense desire for the political system is that decision makers be empathetic and, especially, non-self-interested, not that they be responsive and accountable to the people's largely nonexistent policy preferences or, even worse, that the people be obligated to participate directly in decision making. In light of these findings, Hibbing and Theiss-Morse conclude by cautioning communitarians, direct democrats, social capitalists, deliberation theorists, and all those who think that greater citizen involvement is the solution to society's problems."--Jacket