This is a collection of three essays by David Popenoe, Andrew Norton and Barry Maley about the ‘social’ or ‘civic’ virtues which, when they are strong and commonplace, make living in society better than it might otherwise be. Conversely, when they begin to falter, we rapidly notice the signs in deteriorating quality of life, with more violence and disorder, more dishonesty, more rancour, more quarrelling and less kindliness. Virtue is a word used infrequently nowadays. It has an old-fashioned and moralistic ring to it for a ‘cool’ and permissive age. Yet we still value courage, tenacity, kindliness, cooperation, honesty, responsibility, and many other ways of behaving that make individuals admirable and social life peaceful, orderly and rewarding. So virtue is no less relevant to this age than to any other, and those virtues which are especially important for maintaining a high level of civility are the proper subjects of this analysis.
