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Complexity, division, mistrust, and “process paralysis” can thwart leaders and others when they tackle local challenges. This book shows how civic capacity—the capacity to create and sustain smart collective action—can be developed and used. In an era of sharp debate over the conditions under which democracy can develop while broadening participation and building community, it argues that understanding and building civic capacity is crucial for strengthening governance and changing the state of the world in the process. More than managing a contest among interest groups or spurring deliberation to reframe issues, democracy can be what the public most desires: A recipe for significant progress on important problems. The author examines efforts in six cities in the United States, Brazil, India, and South Africa, which face the millennial challenges of rapid urban growth, economic restructuring, and investing in the next generation. These challenges demand the engagement of government, business, and nongovernmental sectors. The keys to progress include the ability to combine learning and bargaining continually, to forge multiple forms of accountability, and to find ways to leverage the capacity of the grassroots and what the author terms the “grasstops,” regardless of who initiates change or who participates over time. Civic capacity can—and must—be developed, even in places that lack traditions of cooperative civic action.

Eruptions of religious intolerance are often described as spontaneous and visceral. This book, however, argues that most major episodes of religious offense are purposefully manufactured by political entrepreneurs. These actors use “hate spin” as an instrument of contentious politics. Hate spin combines conventional hate speech with the more novel strategy of offense-taking. In either of these two modes—vilification or indignation—hate spin stokes up communities’ fears, exploits identity politics, and instigates mob action. It oppresses minorities and degrades the culture of tolerance essential for democratic life. This book analyzes how hate spin works and what it means for freedom of expression. It examines the phenomenon in the world’s three largest democracies, showing how the Hindu right in India, the Muslim right in Indonesia and the Christian right in United States have all employed variants of the same strategy. It also looks at major trans-boundary cases, including online. International human rights norms provide a workable framework for a policy response. States need to prohibit incitement that would cause actual harm to vulnerable groups. But blasphemy laws and other attempts to enforce respect for religion backfire by allowing hate spin agents to hijack state power for their offense-taking campaigns. More can be achieved by promoting equality and fighting discrimination than by regulating speech. Beyond the law, resisting hate spin requires the cooperation of media and civil society, morally courageous political leadership, and an inclusive framing of national identity.