The Civic Culture

"Civic culture is actually a term which was coined by the two authors to describe the set of related political and social attitudes said to be crucial to the success of modern democracies. What is interesting is the high level of civil involvement they discovered in political decision-making. For example in the United States lots of people got involved in talking about education and the health care system. The book shows that the United States led the way in civil involvement, followed by the United Kingdom, then Germany, then Italy and Mexico. The authors write about the different levels between a really democratic state like the United States and places like Mexico where democracy can be strained sometimes. “In the first few years of the new Iraq there was this idea that Iraqis still hoped they could change their lives. That is fading now.” For me and my fellow Iraqis, a book like this is very important because it shows how we can participate in our civic reconciliation and in politics and we really need a shift towards that right now. I try to write about this book in Iraqi newspapers and websites and to tell my students about it. I want to spread the word. I want people to get more involved in the political process here in Iraq. Yes, unfortunately. Now after six years of the political process we can see frustration inside Iraqi society. In the first few years of the new Iraq there was this idea that Iraqis still hoped they could change their lives. That is fading now. After the third elected government they started to feel that politics in Iraq is hopeless. Even the percentage of voters has become very low, showing that people are losing faith in the political system."