The Internet Generation: Engaged Citizens or Political Dropouts

Preface

Preface T his book returns to the subject of my last book with the University Press of New England: Civic Literacy: How Informed Citizens Make Democracy Work. In the eight years since it was published, much has changed. Two linked aspects that were only secondary features when I was writing at the turn of the century now dominate the landscape: the Internet, and the generation that grew up in its wake. Civic Literacy, as I wrote at the time, came at the end of an intellectual journey I had taken through the industrial democracies, identifying and trying to understand differences in civic literacy, or the proportion of citizens with the knowledge and skills to effectively exercise their citizenship . I argued that differences in societal efforts at what I termed nonmaterial redistribution explained the substantial differences in levels of political participation, and, thus, in policy outcomes. The societies high in civic literacy had reduced disparities in both material and nonmaterial (intellectual) resources: bringing those on the lower rungs of society to higher levels of knowledge not only augmented their economic opportunities, but also enhanced their capacity to exercise political influence through informed political participation. While the book signaled emerging historical developments, it was primarily comparative . Yet soon after it was published, I came to realize that there was a critical historical—generational—dimension to low levels of civic literacy and political participation. Voter turnout data, complemented by public opinion polling from my own country, Canada, were especially eloquent in this regard, something I found myself frequently asked to explain. As I delved further, it became apparent that incorporating this generational factor into the analysis would mean an additional stage on my intellectual journey. Several stops along the way took the form of specific research projects , the fruits of which found their way into a number of articles and viii // preface papers. But it became increasingly clear that to approach the question at the scale and level it required would take another, equally ambitious book. A huge and varied literature touching upon the political engagement of young people, especially in the United States, was emerging; but there are few books on the subject, and none that attempted to incorporate the key dimensions of the issue and do so cross-nationally. Taking up the challenge of understanding the behavior of this generation entailed revisiting the relationship among civic literacy, political participation. and nonmaterial redistribution. It meant placing not only more emphasis on education, but shifting the emphasis toward civic education and the Internet. Nonmaterial redistribution, for this generation , has become interwoven with disseminating the requisite skills and knowledge via the Internet. And the societal changes these technological developments have brought in their wake have placed the burden of such dissemination increasingly on the shoulders of the school—that is, via civic education. I was not a specialist on either the Internet or civic education. In the long process of exploring these subjects and integrating them into the wider project, I benefited from the assistance of many people, too many to be listed here. Some names are obvious—for example, younger colleagues in collaboration with whom I wrote some of the papers published in the intervening years. Many of the papers were published under the auspices of an academic or research institute that found the issues worth investigation. I begin by identifying certain individuals associated with these institutes with whom I worked most closely, but this does not do justice to the many others who made the collaborations possible: Geneviève Bouchard and Leslie Seidle at the Institute for Research in Public Policy (irpp), in Montreal; Andrew Ellis and Maria Gratschew at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International idea), in Stockholm; André Blais, holder of the Chair in Electoral Studies at the Université de Montréal; Svante Ersson and Niklas Eklund in the Department of Political Science at Umeå University , in Sweden; Peter Levine and Mark Hugo Lopez at circle (the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning) at Tufts University ; Kimmo Grönlund and Lauri Karvonen at dc:e (Democracy: A Citizen Perspective) at Åbo Academi, in Finland; and Miriam Lapp and Alain Pelletier at Elections Canada. preface // ix Others helpful at various points through this latest stage of the journey include: Eva Anduiza Perea, Henk Dekker, Michael Delli Carpini, Eugénie Dostie-Goulet, Monroe Eagles, Bernard Fournier, Mark...