Conservative theorists treated citizen apathy as a healthy basis of democratic order.
Evidence
According to such opinion, a certain measure of political apathy was healthy (as Janowitz put it), and the existence of a behavioural type consisting of non-political citizens who gave their assent to the system was seen as needing to be positively acknowledged in the long term, since this formed the very basis of the system (as Schelsky put it in his book, The Sceptical Generation). — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 578
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the Frankfurt School volume’s account of Schelsky’s popular postwar conservatism and positivism as a counter-Enlightenment force. — connects to: Political apathy can be sanctioned as the system’s healthy basis — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2341; Citizens’ anti-politics posturing serves right-wing policy goals. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 933; Mistrust of government is a healthy, intended feature of democratic design. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 84
- DEFINE: Names Janowitz’s and Schelsky’s positions in the postwar German debate over apathy versus participation.
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Political apathy can be sanctioned as the system’s healthy basis — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2341; Citizens’ anti-politics posturing serves right-wing policy goals. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 933; Mistrust of government is a healthy, intended feature of democratic design. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 84
Broader Connections
- Political apathy can be sanctioned as the system’s healthy basis
#expands(0.95) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2341 - Citizens’ anti-politics posturing serves right-wing policy goals.
#complicates(0.78) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 933