Citizenship in Hard Times, with Prof. Sara Goodman

" Citizenship in Hard Times "  ....... it is a book by Sara Goodman, PhD

 Sara is an associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), where she is also co-Director of the Jack W. Peltason Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD). Her research examines democratic inclusion and the shaping of political identity through citizenship and immigrant integration. She is the author of Immigration and Membership Politics in Western Europe (Cambridge University Press). Her research is also published in Journal of Politics, World Politics, and Comparative Political Studies.

What do citizens do in times of democratic crisis? When democracy is under threat, do everyday citizens activate and mobilize, or do they hunker down, demobilize, and express greater support for homogeneity (like speaking English)? Scholars, pundits and policy experts have largely focused on elite behavior and institutional guardrails, but the citizenry is a foundation to any story about democracy under threat. This book is the first to examine civic obligation in unsettled democratic times from the perspective of citizens themselves. It employs a three-country study of the US, UK, and Germany, to examine how democratic citizens define obligation and for whom, comparing native-born and naturalized citizens. Findings highlight the importance of how democratic problems are framed, and puts forward a number of policy prescriptions for overhauling civic education.