Citizen Democracy: Political Activists in a Cynical Age

By Stephen E. Frantzich

Book Overview

Apathy and antipathy toward politics are epidemic. Citizen Democracy provides the antidote. In this revised and updated edition, Stephen E. Frantzich portrays citizens from every walk of life-rich and poor, old and young, black and white, male and female, left and right, famous and obscure-as they choose to become involved in politics at a level to which readers can relate.

Some of the stories contain unexpected twists. Candy Lightner, the founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, now works as a liquor industry lobbyist and argues that MADD has gone too far. College freshman Gregory Watson reacted to receiving a "C" on a political science paper by quitting school and becoming the driving force behind passage of a constitutional amendment that had been the subject of his paper. Two young women independently wrote letters of application to the U.S. Naval Academy and in the process moved military education in the direction of gender neutrality.

Citizen Democracy shows ordinary people engaged in extraordinary civic activity. Their causes run the gamut from civil rights to flag burning, from the Internet to the environment-but their common cause is the fact that they creatively entered the arena of national public policy making and made a difference.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0742564460
• ISBN13: 9780742564466
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Awesome Book!

This is a great read, either as a textbook in a government and politics class or as a book to inspire and amaze. Dr. Frantzich has meticulously researched the famous and obscure that have taken some bold steps to make a difference and affect real change. After I finished reading it and using it for a college-leve public administration class I am teaching, my husband read it and will use the vingettes to illustrate the government process to his AP government class. I highly recommend it and will use it again in my college classes.

Must reading this election year -- now go vote!

This is a refreshing and inspiring collection of essays about people who refuse to believe "you can't fight city hall." Subtitled "Political activists in a cynical age" it traces the stories of people who used the political system to affect public well-being. Examples include MADD (mothers against drunk driving); Dr. Kristen Zarfos, the breast cancer surgeon whose grass roots efforts stopped "Drive Through Mastectomies;" and Rosa Parks bus segregation protest. I'm famiiliar with Dr. Zarfos story, and this book tells it beautifully. Read this book yourself and give it to anyone who complains about how irrelevant politics has become!