Democracy: Since We Can't Stand the Heat, We Stay out of the Kitchen

When Stealth Democracy: Americans' Beliefs about How Government Should Work was published in 2002, it caused "quite a stir among people who work for civic and democratic reform," according to reviewer Peter Levine. With the aid of a Gallup poll they commissioned, as well focus groups, the authors -- political scientists John R. Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse -- shattered any illusions reformers and media myth-makers might entertain that Americans honor and cherish participatory democracy.

I've just picked up the book (and also have begun printing out refutations). But I wanted to share a few teaser quotes from the introduction before finishing Stealth Democracy and treating it to an in-depth evaluation. I considered highlighting with italics phrases that jumped out at me. However, since every third sentence is either startling or alarming, I decided to let the text stand on its own.

"The last thing people want is to be more involved in political decision making: They do not want to make political decisions themselves; they do not want to provide much input to those who are assigned to makes these decision; and they would rather not know all the details of the decision-making process. Most people have strong feelings on few if any of the issues the government needs to address and would much prefer to spend their time in nonpolitical pursuits."

"The people as a whole tend to be quite indifferent to policies and therefore are not eager to hold government accountable for the policies it produces."

"Participation in politics is low because people do not like politics even in the best of circumstances; in other words, they simply do not like the process of openly arriving at a decision in the face of diverse opinions."

"We show that people want to distance themselves from government not because of a system defect but because many people are simply averse to political conflict and many others believe political conflict is unnecessary and an indication that something is wrong with governmental procedures."

It's true that the first conclusion one is likely to draw from Stealth Democracy is that we're ripe for fascism. But, as always, Americans defy pigeonholing.

"Although the people dislike a political system built on sustained public involvement, there is something they dislike even more: a political system in which decision-makers -- for no reason other than the fact that are in a position to make decisions -- accrue benefits at the expense of non-decision makers. . . . citizens are usually less concerned with obtaining a policy outcome than with preventing others from using the process to further their own nests."

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