Bob Graham Center for Public Service

A growing chorus of political analysts claim that an uncivil, disengaged and alienated public is placing American democracy at risk–and that the young are most responsible for this trend. Dalton argues that the good news is . . . the bad news is wrong.

Using a series of national public opinion surveys, he gives a full accounting of how Americans are changing their views of good citizenship—and participation. Turnout in elections has decreased, but Americans are more engaged in a wider variety of political activities, and the young are at the forefront of these new patterns of democratic citizenship.

Dalton, a professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine, focuses his research on the role of citizens in the political process, and how democracies can better address public preferences and the democratic ideal. He was founding director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at UC Irvine. The author or editor of more than twenty books, Dalton has been a Fulbright Research Fellowship, Scholar-in-Residence at the Barbra Streisand Center, German Marshall Fund Research Fellowship, the POSCO Fellowship at the East West Center, and the UCI Emeriti Award for Faculty Mentorship. Kim Martin from the Graham Center is using his book “The Good Citizen: How a Younger Generation is Reshaping American Politics” as a text in her honors course on Citizenship in spring 2011.

Dalton’s visit was part of a new effort at bringing some of the nation’s best and brightest scholars to the Bob Graham Center – an initiative aimed at increasing civic awareness among a new generation of student leaders. Civic health is a pressing issue in Florida. The National Conference on Citizenship has ranked the state 34th nationally in average voter turnout, 48th in public meeting attendance and 49th in volunteering – making it one of the weakest civic cultures in the nation.

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