Distrust American Style: Diversity and the Crisis of Public Confidence

Political scientists have accumulated a significant amount of data suggesting that over the past decades, Americans have become less trusting of each other, and that as our population’s diversity increases, our trust in our neighbors declines. Social scientists warn us that this erosion of interpersonal social trust has very negative implications for our ability to govern ourselves effectively.

In this informative discussion of Americans’ growing distrust, political scientist Sheila Suess Kennedy argues that diversity is not the reason we trust less. The culprit is a loss of faith in our social and governing institutions, and the remedy is to make them trustworthy once more. Rather than attempting to limit diversity through divisive measures such as building a wall between the United States and Mexico or imposing stricter immigration quotas, Kennedy emphasizes the need for the following confidence-building government reforms:

Electoral reforms designed to eliminate gerrymandering, to ensure that electoral-college votes reflect the popular vote, and to increase voter participation through a nationwide vote-by-mail system.
Improved government accountability so that the people are confident that constitutional checks and balances are honored and that government agencies are run by true experts, not political appointees.
Creation of an affordable nationwide healthcare system that removes the current healthcare anxieties experienced by so many Americans.
Kennedy’s cogent arguments, thorough research, and clear presentation make for a compelling book that will be of interest to politicians and citizens alike.

1113679341
Distrust American Style: Diversity and the Crisis of Public Confidence

Political scientists have accumulated a significant amount of data suggesting that over the past decades, Americans have become less trusting of each other, and that as our population’s diversity increases, our trust in our neighbors declines. Social scientists warn us that this erosion of interpersonal social trust has very negative implications for our ability to govern ourselves effectively.

In this informative discussion of Americans’ growing distrust, political scientist Sheila Suess Kennedy argues that diversity is not the reason we trust less. The culprit is a loss of faith in our social and governing institutions, and the remedy is to make them trustworthy once more. Rather than attempting to limit diversity through divisive measures such as building a wall between the United States and Mexico or imposing stricter immigration quotas, Kennedy emphasizes the need for the following confidence-building government reforms:

Electoral reforms designed to eliminate gerrymandering, to ensure that electoral-college votes reflect the popular vote, and to increase voter participation through a nationwide vote-by-mail system.
Improved government accountability so that the people are confident that constitutional checks and balances are honored and that government agencies are run by true experts, not political appointees.
Creation of an affordable nationwide healthcare system that removes the current healthcare anxieties experienced by so many Americans.
Kennedy’s cogent arguments, thorough research, and clear presentation make for a compelling book that will be of interest to politicians and citizens alike.

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Distrust American Style: Diversity and the Crisis of Public Confidence

Distrust American Style: Diversity and the Crisis of Public Confidence

by Sheila Suess Kennedy
Distrust American Style: Diversity and the Crisis of Public Confidence

Distrust American Style: Diversity and the Crisis of Public Confidence

by Sheila Suess Kennedy

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Overview

Political scientists have accumulated a significant amount of data suggesting that over the past decades, Americans have become less trusting of each other, and that as our population’s diversity increases, our trust in our neighbors declines. Social scientists warn us that this erosion of interpersonal social trust has very negative implications for our ability to govern ourselves effectively.

In this informative discussion of Americans’ growing distrust, political scientist Sheila Suess Kennedy argues that diversity is not the reason we trust less. The culprit is a loss of faith in our social and governing institutions, and the remedy is to make them trustworthy once more. Rather than attempting to limit diversity through divisive measures such as building a wall between the United States and Mexico or imposing stricter immigration quotas, Kennedy emphasizes the need for the following confidence-building government reforms:

Electoral reforms designed to eliminate gerrymandering, to ensure that electoral-college votes reflect the popular vote, and to increase voter participation through a nationwide vote-by-mail system.
Improved government accountability so that the people are confident that constitutional checks and balances are honored and that government agencies are run by true experts, not political appointees.
Creation of an affordable nationwide healthcare system that removes the current healthcare anxieties experienced by so many Americans.
Kennedy’s cogent arguments, thorough research, and clear presentation make for a compelling book that will be of interest to politicians and citizens alike.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781591027089
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 04/21/2009
Pages: 251
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Sheila Suess Kennedy (Indianapolis, IN) is professor of law and public policy at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Purdue University in Indianapolis. She is the author of Distrust, American Style: Diversity and the Crisis of Public Confidence; What's a Nice Republican Girl Like Me Doing in the ACLU?; and God and Country: America in Red and Blue, among other publications.

Table of Contents

Introduction 7

Chapter 1 "Trust Me," Said the Spider 25

Chapter 2 Pluralism and the Paradigm Problem 49

Chapter 3 Distrust, American Style 77

Chapter 4 Government: Our Institutional Infrastructure 107

Chapter 5 Betrayal of Trust 143

Chapter 6 The Trust Gap: Who Trusts, Who "Turtles," and Why? 177

Chapter 7 Being All We Can Be: Three Modest Proposals 199

Afterword: Recovering America 229

Bibliography 235

Index 247

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