Democratic Decline and the Politics of the Upswing: How the United States May Have Come Together a Century Ago but Can It Do It Again?
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299211031857 |
| Published date | 01 November 2022 |
| Date | 01 November 2022 |
| Subject Matter | State of the Art - Review Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299211031857
Political Studies Review
2022, Vol. 20(4) 667 –679
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/14789299211031857
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Democratic Decline and the
Politics of the Upswing: How
the United States May Have
Come Together a Century
Ago but Can It Do It Again?
Matthew Flinders
Abstract
Robert Putman’s The Upswing (written with Shaylyn Romney Garrett) provides a powerful meta-
analysis of American social, political, economic and cultural change throughout the twentieth
century. What this analysis reveals is the existence of an almost perfect arc of social progress
which begins from a low position around the Gilded Age at the beginning of the twentieth century
and then climbs across all variables until reaching a highpoint around 1960. The Progressive Era,
Putnam argues, engineered an ‘upswing’ against inequality, polarisation, social disarray and a
culture of self-centredness. Since then, however, the data suggest that a severe downswing has
occurred which explains the existence of deep divisions and polarised politics in the United States.
Putnam’s core argument is simple: The United States has pulled itself out of a trough before and
it can do it again. In a post-Trump context, this argument could hardly be more welcome which
may explain the rave reviews this book has generally received. Nevertheless, the core weakness
of The Upswing is that it arguably tells us far more about how the United States ‘came together a
century ago’ but far less about how it ‘can do it again’ in the future.
Keywords
social capital, civic life, Obama, democracy, Trump
Accepted: 21 June 2021
The United States is a deeply divided and troubled democracy. The Trump Presidency and
the impact of COVID has only deepened divides and laid bare the existence of embedded
structural inequalities. In this context, Robert Putnam’s latest book Upswing (written with
Shaylyn Romney Garrett) has arguably been published with impeccable timing. The
United States is, as one review of this book puts it, ‘yearning for an Upswing’ (Kahloon,
Department of Politics and International Relations, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Corresponding author:
Matthew Flinders, The University of Sheffield, S10 2TY, Sheffield, UK.
Email: m.flinders@sheffield.ac.uk
1031857PSW0010.1177/14789299211031857Political Studies ReviewFlinders
research-article2021
State of the Art – Review Article
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