Most Americans watch Friends rather than having friends.

People may go to the library looking mainly for information, but they find each other there.

Most Americans watch Friends rather than having friends.

What really matters from the point of view of social capital and civic engagement is not merely nominal membership, but active and involved membership.

Social capital may turn out to be a prerequisite for, rather than a consequence of, effective computer-mediated communication.

A society that relies on generalized reciprocity is more efficient than a distrustful society, for the same reason that money is more efficient than barter. Trust lubricates social life. Networks of civic engagement also facilitate coordination and communication and amplify information about the trustworthiness of other individuals.

Unequal Democracy is the sort of book to which every political scientist should aspire--it is methodologically rigorous, conceptually serious, and above all, it addresses urgent concerns of our fellow citizens. As Bartels shows, much of what we think we know about the politics of economic inequality is dead wrong. Bartels's perplexing and often unexpected discoveries should help refocus the gathering public debate about inequality and what to do about it.