Bøger af Robert D. Putnam

A New York Times bestseller and ';a passionate, urgent' (The New Yorker) examination of the growing inequality gap from the bestselling author of Bowling Alone: why fewer Americans today have the opportunity for upward mobility.Central to the very idea of America is the principle that we are a nation of opportunity. But over the last quarter century we have seen a disturbing opportunity gap emerge. We Americans have always believed that those who have talent and try hard will succeed, but this central tenet of the American Dream seems no longer true or at the least, much less true than it was. In Our Kids, Robert Putnam offers a personal and authoritative look at this new American crisis, beginning with the example of his high school class of 1959 in Port Clinton, Ohio. The vast majority of those students went on to lives better than those of their parents. But their children and grandchildren have faced diminishing prospects. Putnam tells the tale of lessening opportunity through poignant life stories of rich, middle class, and poor kids from cities and suburbs across the country, brilliantly blended with the latest social-science research. A truly masterful volume (Financial Times), Our Kids provides a disturbing account of the American dream that is thoughtful and persuasive (The Economist). Our Kids offers a rare combination of individual testimony and rigorous evidence: No one can finish this book and feel complacent about equal opportunity (The New York Times Book Review).

Why do some democratic governments succeed and others fail? In a book that has received attention from policymakers and civic activists in America and around the world, Robert Putnam and his collaborators offer empirical evidence for the importance of "e;civic community"e; in developing successful institutions. Their focus is on a unique experiment begun in 1970 when Italy created new governments for each of its regions. After spending two decades analyzing the efficacy of these governments in such fields as agriculture, housing, and health services, they reveal patterns of associationism, trust, and cooperation that facilitate good governance and economic prosperity.