Tom DeLuca: The Two Faces of Political Apathy

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#CC0000" alink="#CC0000"><center><hr width="350" size="1" align="center" noshade>A challenge to complacency and non participation in American politics<hr width="350" size="1" align="center" noshade><p><a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/ChicagoBook.aspx?ISBN=9781566393140&&PRESS=temple" target="_top">Buy this book!</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">View Cart</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">Check Out</a></p><p><img src="1112_reg.gif" height=200 border=1 vspace=4></p></center><h1>The Two Faces of Political Apathy</h1> <h3>Thomas DeLuca</h3> <P>cloth 1-56639-314-0 $79.50, Aug 95, <FONT COLOR=#990033>Out of Stock Unavailable</FONT> <br>paper 1-56639-315-9 $35.95, Aug 95, <FONT COLOR=#990033>Available</FONT> <BR> 304 pp 6x9 2 figures </P><h3 align="center"><P><font color="#996633">Finalist for Transformational Politics Book Award, American Political Science Association, 1996</font></P> </H3> <BLOCKQUOTE><I>"Political Science, says DeLuca, too often encourages 'the belief that half-hearted, demi-democracy is all we can expect.' DeLuca expects more. What's more, he shows in compelling prose just how half-hearted democracy engenders class injuries and destructive political resentments. </I>The Two Faces of Political Apathy<I> both poses a powerful challenge to democratic complacency and uncovers the promise of a more generous democratic ethos buried within American culture."</I> <br>&#151<B>William E. Connolly</b>, <I>The Johns Hopkins University</i><I></I></BLOCKQUOTE> <p>This inclusive study examines the extraordinarily high rates of political nonparticipation in the United States and the political, historical, institutional, and philosophical roots of such widespread apathy. To explain why individuals become committed to political apathy as a political role, Tom DeLuca begins by defining "the two faces of political apathy." <p>The first, rooted in free will, properly places responsibility for nonparticipation in the political process on individuals. Political scientists and journalists, however, too often overlook a second, more insidious face of apathy&#151a condition created by institutional practices and social and cultural structures that limit participation and political awareness. The public blames our most disenfranchised citizens for their own disenfranchisement. Apathetic citizens blame themselves. <p>DeLuca examines classic and representative explanations of non-participation by political analysts across a range of methodologies and schools of thought. Focusing on their views on the concepts of political power and political participation, he assesses current proposals for reform. He argues that overcoming the second face of apathy requires a strategy of "real political equality," which includes greater equality in the availability of political resources, in setting the political agenda, in clarifying political issues, and in developing a public sphere for more genuine democratic politics. <BR> <h2>Excerpt</h2><P>Excerpt available at <a href="http://www.temple.edu/tempress">www.temple.edu/tempress</a></p> <BR> <h2>Reviews</h2> <p><I>"</I>The Two Faces of Political Apathy<I> is an excellent book. Based on a penetrating and insightful analysis of key political concepts&#151including power, interest, participation, and depoliticalization&#151and conflicting theories of political apathy, Tom DeLuca presents a persuasive argument to explain the persistence of mass political passivity that grips the American polity. It is an ideal book for courses in political democracy and political theory."</I> <br>&#151<b>Peter Bachrach</b>, Temple University <p><I>"Tom DeLuca develops a brilliant exegesis of contemporary democratic theory in order to illuminate patterns of political participation and nonparticipation in the late twentieth century United States. More than that, he complements his deft probing of theory with a sustained examination of the bearing of power inequalities on nonparticipation, and a brave consideration of the impediments to reform posed by concentrated power."</I> <br>&#151<b>Francis Fox Piven</b>, The City University of New York <BR> <h2>Contents</h2><P> <p>Preface <br>Acknowledgments <br>Introduction: The Politics of Nonparticipation <p><b>Part I: Roots of Apathy</b> <br>1. Liberalism, Laissez-faire, and Republic <br>2. Love and Fear of Equality <br>3. American Political Development <br>4. The Science of Liberal Politics <p><b>Part II: Explanations of Nonparticipation</b> <br>5. The Virtues of Apathy <br>6. Apolitical Man <br>7. The Rationality of Apathy <br>8. Plain Democratic Theory <br>9. The Subordination of Politics <br>10. Absolute Apathy <br>11. Race, Gender, and Explanation <p><b>Part III: Overcoming Apathy</b> <br>12. Real People and False Consciousness <br>13. The Second Face of Apathy <br>14. The Empirical Basis of Democratic Reform <br>15. The Ideas Behind Reform <p>Conclusion: Real Political Equality <br>Epilogue: A Time for Democracy <br>Notes <br>Index </P><BR> <H2>About the Author(s)</H2> <P><b>Tom DeLuca</b> is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Fordham College at Lincoln Center. He has been a long-time activist on local and national issues, especially nuclear arms control, and his op-ed pieces on politics have appeared in <I>The New York Times</I>, <I>New York Newsday</I>, <I>The Nation</I>, and <I>The Progressive</I>.</P> <BR><H2>Subject Categories</H2> <p><A HREF="/tempress/political.html" TARGET="_top">Political Science and Public Policy</a> </p> <p align="center"><a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/ChicagoBook.aspx?ISBN=9781566393140&&PRESS=temple" target="_top">Buy this book!</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">View Cart</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">Check Out</a></p><p><font face="Arial" size="1"><a href="copyright.html" onMouseOver="window.status='Web Copyright Policy';return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''" title="Web Copyright Policy">©</a> 2015 <a href="http://www.temple.edu" target="new" onMouseOver="window.status='Link to Temple University home page';return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''" title="Link to Temple University home page">Temple University</a>. 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