Marta Russell wrote:
>In the general population there is also the fact that people are
>required to work so hard -- long long hours --- that they don't have
>time to be "civic".
-People worked harder in the 19th century, and were more engaged. And -the average American spends almost 3 hours a day watching TV -<http://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.t01.htm>. So it's not a matter -of "having time" in the literal sense.
It depends on your definition of engagement. Workers and unions that existed in the 19th century were in many ways less engaged in politics in the late 19th century than today.
What led to a lot of engagement was the spoils system that created a direct financial benefit to those working on successful political campaigns. Arguably the biggest blow to civic participation in the 20th century were the dismantling of the political machines.
Nathan Newman