Research Paper on:
Democracy by Robert Putnam

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
higher degrees of social capital and interaction also shift the idea of the "me" or self-interest to that of the "we" in regards to local and national interests. Social capital  and involvement in social and voluntary groups on community levels make citizens more aware of the democratic process and also increases their awareness of participation, reciprocity and trustworthiness. These qualities  in turn lead to higher voter turn out, political awareness and responsibility. In Robert Putnams chapter "Democracy" (2002), he tries to explain the  modern day version of active civic democracy from the perspectives of public duties and institutions and private voluntary groups and responsibility. He begins his chapter by quoting Oscar Wilde in  saying "The trouble with socialism is that is would take too many evenings" (Putnam, 2000, p. 3). However, Putnam stipulates that modern democracy also must involve "evenings" regarding the active  participation of its citizenry. This is called participatory democracy and must be applied on an individualistic and collective level in order to be productive (Putnam, 2000). The idea of participatory  democracy in the United States originated during the time of Thomas Jefferson when he proposed amending the constitution to allow for ward governments involving the breaking down of the counties  into wards to allow for citizen participation and government to maintain the facilities within their area. The idea being that citizens will become more involved if they know their actions  will be of interest to their own area and add to the independence of the country rather than depend upon the federal government for all institutions (Putnam, 2000). The idea  of ward governments and small voluntary groups with local interests were not all accepted by the early politicians as they believed that they would cause "mischiefs of faction" in that