"The founders of the American republic saw two motivations for individual civic participation: self-interest and civic duty. This book argues that the declining nature of traditional forms of civic participation in America over the last half century are the result of the evolution of larger institutional, social, and historical forces over the course of the nation's history--the expansion of citizenship, the changing political economy, and the growth of the national government--that have altered the calculus for individual civic participation, favoring the self-interest motivation at the expense of the civic duty motivation.