[.ca] Civic Literacy: How Informed Citizens Make Democracy Work (ISBN 1584651733)

Why civic literacy is a key to improving our democracy.:
I think this well-written and engaging book is a major contribution to our understanding of the disturbing and continuing decline in political participation in the world's industrial democracies. A key factor explaining that trend, Milner argues, is the decline in civic literacy - the knowledge and skills individuals need to make sense of their political world and to act as competent citizens. Milner proposes his civic literacy theory as a superior alternative to the social capital theory advanced by Robert Putnam and others. If social capital does not translate into higher levels of civic literacy, Milner contends, it will not motivate and empower citizens to participate in politics. Civic literacy is key. To test his theory, Milner draws upon extensive political research on the U.S., Canada, western Europe, Australia and New Zealand. He measures and compares levels of national civic literacy. He demonstrates the positive linkage between civic literacy and various forms of political participation (including voting). He documents the increasingly negative impact of TV and other media on the quality of civic education. He also shows how political institutions (particularly party systems and electoral rules) can promote or retard the development of civic literacy. He concludes his fine book by exploring the direct and indirect effects of civic literacy on economic performance and social justice in many nations. As a political scientist and an educator, I was particularly inspired by Milner's call for educational and electoral reforms as a means to promote civic literacy, mobilize participation, and improve our democracy.

Why Johnny Doesn't Vote:
Fewer citizens are coming to the polls. There are many reasons for this, but one too often neglected - has to do with the decline in levels of political information. Can we expect people who do not keep up with political events to vote? This is the central question addressed in this book. It brings to bear data from a series of indicators, developing the concept of "civic literacy" as a framework for comparing societies' capacity for informed political participation. Milner shows that a population's degree of civic literacy is the single best predictor of its level of voter turnout. This is a first rate comparative analysis. I previously became acquainted with Milner through his writings on Scandinavian and Quebec policies and politics; clearly in this book Milner has brought himself to the forefront of scholars of comparative policy and politics - and to those interested in media, education and community involvement issues. And he is not writing on an obscure theme. The questions he addresses are arguably the most important of those confronting modern democratic societies. His argument is empirically well founded, and, ultimately, convincing. And Milner does not fail to set out clear policy implications and directions flowing from his analysis, policies linked to media consumption, adult education, as well as to electoral institutions, addressing Canadians in particular. All this is done in a clear, highly readable style, quite remarkable for a work of such complexity and breadth. He includes a wide number of charts which visually let us get a sense of the argument. Milner shows that a population's degree of civic literacy is the single best predictor of its level of voter turnout. Drawing on the experience of the high civic literacy societies of Northern Europe, he sets out a series of policies - policies linked to the role of the media, to adult and civic education, and to the informativeness of partisan political debate - that account for the success of the high civic-literacy countries in attaining consistently high levels of informed political participation. This approach taken is usefully contrasted with the prevailing literature on declining political participation, which revolves around the concept of social capital, as developed notably by Robert Putnam. For Putnam, voting is one of a wider set of activities and attitudes that have been negatively affected by a general decline in associational participation and social trust. Putnam's conceptualization, Milner shows, is not that helpful in explaining differences in levels of voter turnout across countries or its recent decline. This is because many of the kinds of activities associated with social capital do not contribute to civic literacy and, hence, do not enhance political participation. Moreover, social capital, focuses concern on civil society. By stressing civic literacy, Milner draws our attention to political institutions and the opportunities and incentives these provide for political actors to engage in the activities needed to nurture and sustain an informed polity. In the last part of the book, Milner shows that the effects of low civic literacy are not neutral. Since informed individuals can better identify the effects policy options have upon their own interests and those of others in their community, high civic-literacy societies characteristic of Northern Europe, are shown to be able to more readily attain long-term egalitarian economic outcomes. In low civic literacy societies like the US, the interests of the economically disadvantaged carry less weight since they are more often excluded from informed political participation through lack of civic competence. I highly recommend this book. It is an academic book with real-life applications. His section on TV dependency, newspaper readership and political knowledge certainly gives us food for thought. .