In The Future of Democracy: Developing the Next Generation of Citizens, Peter Levine makes a number of valuable contributions to academic and ‘real world’ debates over the state of U.S. democracy. It brings clarity to key concepts at the heart of these debates. It provides a comprehensive overview and synthesis of empirical research on young people’s civic and political engagement. It assesses the effectiveness of existing efforts to increase youth engagement in the public sphere. It makes well-grounded recommendations for reform. And, perhaps most importantly, it makes a compelling case for the central role young people must play if democracy is to function responsively and responsibly.
