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Article: At democracy's edge.(ESSAY)
- Article from:
- World Watch
- Article date:
- November 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Worldwatch Institute. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It's far too late and things are far too bad for pessimism.
--Dee Hock
Under the banner of exporting democracy, Americans are sacrificing our lives abroad--even as many fear we are losing democracy here at home. But it's not too late, not if we seize the power of democracy itself.
The trouble is, we first have to believe in it.
Yet three-fourths of us--a share that doubled from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s--feel our "government is run by a few big interests looking out only for themselves." Booming flag sales notwithstanding, our confidence in democracy is waning because our received notion of it is proving too shallow to inspire confidence, ...