Content area
Full text
(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)
For at least two decades, concern over the health of American democracy has generated a wealth of research among political scientists. Studies have documented widespread civic disengagement, lackluster electoral participation, the dominating role of money in politics, the coarsening of political discourse, hyperpartisanship, and patterns of participation that amplify the voice of the well-to-do, along with persistent mistrust of government. Although a variety of solutions has been proposed for each of these ailments, collaborative governance stands out as an approach that practitioners and policy analysts have embraced as a strategy for reknitting the fabric of democracy, even as it promotes more effective government. By involving citizens in collaborations to address the problems in their own communities, collaborative governance promises to build a Tocquevillian democratic political culture of constructive engagement from the bottom up. But what can we realistically expect of collaborative governance and under what conditions? How can collaborative governance hold its own in a political world that seems to run on the exact opposite principles? And what can it do to influence that broader political world?
In Investing in Democracy, Carmen Sirianni makes the case for collaborative governance, but with a distinctive twist. He suggests that significant civic engagement toward public ends does not arise spontaneously; instead, he argues that government must actively promote collaborative governance. The book offers an incisive distillation of the principles of successful collaborative governance, providing a vivid portrait of these principles in action. Through in-depth analysis of three successful cases--neighborhood involvement in Seattle, a system to promote youth participation in Hampton, Virginia, and environmental engagement sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency--Sirianni shows what government did to help promote, guide, and sustain civic engagement in each of these domains. He also reveals what some of the broader benefits can be. In particular, when residents are responsible for coproducing public goods, they become more aware of the trade-offs inherent in any policy choice, and they gain a better understanding of the costs of fulfilling public purposes. In short, collaborative governance works against the combination of disengagement and shrill partisan rhetoric that characterizes much of American politics.
The book is situated in the rich literature on social capital and trust. It has much to contribute to...