We need young people to be civically engaged in order to define and address public problems. Their participation is important for democracy, for institutions such as schools, and for young people themselves, who are more likely to succeed in life if they are engaged in their communities. In The Future of Democracy, Peter Levine, scholar and practitioner, sounds the alarm: in recent years, young Americans have become dangerously less engaged. They are tolerant, patriotic, and idealistic, and some have invented such novel and impressive forms of civic engagement, as blogs, “buycott” movements, and transnational youth networks. But most lack the skills and opportunities they need to participate in politics or address public problems. Levine’s timely manifesto clearly explains the causes, symptoms, and repercussions of this damaging trend, and, most importantly, the means whereby America can confront and reverse it. Levine demonstrates how to change young people’s civic attitudes, skills, and knowledge and, equally importantly, to reform our institutions so that civic engagement is rewarding and effective. We must both prepare citizens for politics and improve politics for citizens.
Parents and educators may be especially interested in Levine’s thoughts on more deeply engaging young people through field trips, mock elections and service projects and will find helpful information [on] civic learning in school, civic learning in communities, and practical ways to enhance the civic engagement of youth and adults.
The Future of Democracy: Developing the Next Generation of American Citizens is a wonderful example of an important type of scholarship. It emerges from practice and is substantiated by comprehensive research about a critical social problem: In the past 25 years, many of us in the United States have become more familiar with our roles as consumers than our roles as citizens. Peter Levine focuses on conditions among young people as a beacon for understanding the breath and consequences of this problem . . . Levine’s book is both a well-researched statement about the status of civic engagement in America and a persuasive, focused call for action.
Levine’s book is a little gem that I will keep on my bookshelf, close at hand. I first met Levine through his work on the Civic Mission of Schools, setting forth a consensus view of what we can do in our nation’s schools to rescue students from the era of civic and historical illiteracy. The Future of Democracy is an apt name for this book. Without taking more aggressive steps as a nation to put our country’s civic health on the national radar screen-and to engage families, schools, communities, churches and political institutions in fostering a spirit of civic commitment among our young people-the future of that democracy looks grim. Levine finds innovative ways at all levels of education and governance to rescue it.
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.
[A] wonderful example of an important type of scholarship . . . Levine’s book is a both well-researched statement about the status of civic engagement in America and a persuasive, focused call for action.
PETER LEVINE is Director of CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Education, which he helped launch in 2001. He holds a doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University and is also Research Scholar at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy in the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy. He has served as Executive Committee chair of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools and in other advocacy roles. He has published five books and numerous articles on politics, civil society, the Internet, and moral philosophy, and literature.
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