This book confirms the idea put forth nearly a century and a half ago by Alexis de Tocqueville, that American democracy is rooted in civic voluntarism--citizens' involvement in family, work, school, and religion, as well as in their political participation as voters, campaigners, protesters, or comm[...]

Do political campaign events determine election winners? For too long, political scientists argued that issues, not campaigns, determined whether politicians won or lost. Journalists and party activists, on the other hand, devoted their energy to refining candidates' public images, through events, a[...]

Politically active individuals and organizations make huge investments of time, energy, and money to influence everything from election outcomes to congressional subcommittee hearings to local school politics, while other groups and individual citizens seem woefully underrepresented in our political[...]