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Citizen participation has undergone a radical shift since anxieties about 'bowling alone' seized the nation in the 1990s. Many pundits and observers have cheered America's twenty-first-century civic renaissance - an explosion of participatory innovations in public life. Invitations to 'have your say!' and 'join the discussion!' have proliferated. But has the widespread enthusiasm for maximizing citizen democracy led to real change? This book examines how participatory innovations have reshaped American civic life over the past two decades.

Political participation --- Social action --- Democracy --- Political participation - United States --- Social action - United States --- Democracy - United States

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Opportunities to “have your say,” “get involved,” and “join the conversation” are everywhere in public life. From crowdsourcing and town hall meetings to government experiments with social media, participatory politics increasingly seem like a revolutionary antidote to the decline of civic engagement and the thinning of the contemporary public sphere. Many argue that, with new technologies, flexible organizational cultures, and a supportive policy making context, we now hold the keys to large-scale democratic revitalization .Democratizing Inequalities shows that the equation may not be so simple. Modern societies face a variety of structural problems that limit potentials for true democratization, as well as vast inequalities in political action and voice that are not easily resolved by participatory solutions. Popular participation may even reinforce elite power in unexpected ways. Resisting an oversimplified account of participation as empowerment, this collection of essays brings together a diverse range of leading scholars to reveal surprising insights into how dilemmas of the new public participation play out in politics and organizations. Through investigations including fights over the authenticity of business-sponsored public participation, the surge of the Tea Party, the role of corporations in electoral campaigns, and participatory budgeting practices in Brazil, Democratizing In equalities seeks to refresh our understanding of public participation and trace the reshaping of authority in today’s political environment.

Equality. --- Elite (Social sciences) --- Democracy. --- Social participation. --- Political participation. --- POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Process / Elections. --- POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Democracy. --- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General. --- Egalitarianism --- Inequality --- Social equality --- Social inequality --- Political science --- Sociology --- Democracy --- Liberty --- Elites (Social sciences) --- Leadership --- Power (Social sciences) --- Social classes --- Social groups --- Self-government --- Equality --- Representative government and representation --- Republics --- Participation, Social --- Community life --- Citizen participation --- Community action --- Community involvement --- Community participation --- Involvement, Community --- Mass political behavior --- Participation, Citizen --- Participation, Community --- Participation, Political --- Political activity --- Political behavior --- Political rights --- Social participation --- Political activists --- Politics, Practical