The Good Citizen: How a Younger Generation Is Reshaping American Politics

"The Good Citizen is the perfect introduction to my class. It focuses on younger people, which gives it a direct relevance to my students. The basic argument of the book is very compelling, and was an important qualifier on the normal 'youth bashing' that can often happen with regard to millennials and politics. I highly recommend this book. It will not disappoint."

-Michael Franz, Bowdoin College

The Good Citizen uses a new 2014 national public opinion survey to describe how Americans' views of what it means to be a good citizen is changing. Contrary to conventional wisdom, younger generations are more politically engaged, are more politically tolerant, are supportive of a more active government, have stronger democratic ideals, and are more supportive of social justice. The young are creating new norms of citizenship that are leading to a renaissance of democratic participation. The new edition of this groundbreaking work will reshape the way we think about the American public, American youth, and the prospects for contemporary democracy. It uses evidence from the 2004 and 2014 General Social Surveys to describe Americans' changing citizenship norms, the emergence of the Millennial Generation, how the Internet is changing participation patterns, and a new statistical primer to help students understand the survey findings.