Revitalizing Trilateral Democracies

Table of Contents

I. Introduction: Troubled Democracies
Robert D. Putnam
- Symptoms of Distress: Public Evaluations of Politics and Government
- Public Satisfaction and Government Performance
- Overview of this Volume
II. Diagnosis and Therapy:
Jean-Claude Casanova
- Interdependence and the Declining Mastery of National Governments
- Economic Malfunctioning and the Reappraisal of Social Welfare Systems
- Therapies
- Democracy and the End of the Cold War
III. Diagnosis and Therapy: Institutional Weaknesses and Reforms
Seizaburo Sato
(not completed for publication)
IV. Diagnosis and Therapy: Changes in Political Sociology and Civil Society
Robert D. Putnam
- The Decline of Political Parties
- The Rise of Videocracy and “Government by Polling”
- The Decay of Civic Engagement and the Erosion of Community Bonds
- Therapies

Summary

One of the major ironies of this decade is that just at the moment when liberal democracy has defeated all its enemies on the ideological and geopolitical battlefields, many people in the established democracies believe that our own political institutions are faltering, not flourishing. Confidence in governments and political leaders has significantly declined virtually everywhere with the Trilateral world. This report attempts to diagnosis this democratic discontent and offer therapies for revitalizing Trilateral democracies.