Popular Petitioning and Mass Democracy in the United States: a History

该项目旨在调查美国民众请愿被忽视的历史。在漫长的十九世纪，积极分子组织了大规模的请愿运动，支持从反对奴隶制、选举权到限制移民等各种事业。然而，在20世纪，请愿活动减少了。该项目利用这一丰富的激进主义档案来评估请愿作为一种民主工具的作用、影响和演变。预期的结果是对一个至关重要的发展的新视角：大众民主的出现。此外，该项目应该为评估有关数字请愿的现代主张及其弥合公民和政府之间鸿沟的能力提供一个关键的历史框架。

This project aims to investigate the neglected history of popular petitioning in the United States. Across the long nineteenth century, activists organised mass petition campaigns in support of causes as diverse as antislavery, suffrage and immigration restriction. In the twentieth century, however, petitioning dwindled. The project draws on this rich archive of activism to assess the role, impact and evolution of petitioning as a democratic tool. The expected outcome is a new perspective on a vital development: the emergence of mass democracy. Furthermore, the project should provide a critical historical framework for assessing modern-day claims about the digital petition and its power to bridge the gulf between citizens and government.