About five percent of attentive citizens sustain American democratic responsiveness

Evidence

On Russell Neuman’s (1986, 3–4) account, those who know enough to be able to judge much of the government trustworthy might constitute only about 5 percent of the American electorate. Orlando Patterson (1999, 185) says that this small group, who are attentive and active, “accounts for the vibrancy and integrity of the democratic system in America.” If so, a few activists go a long way toward making democracy be responsive. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 728

Categorization

• XREF: The 5% attentive-activist core maps onto the doctor’s wife as the sole sighted guarantor — a tiny minority whose monitoring sustains order for the rest.