Title: American democracy : selected essays on theory, practice, and critique /
Authors: Green, Philip, 1932-
Year: 2014
Subjects: Democracy United States; Political science Philosophy; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Democracy.; POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory.; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Process / General.; United States Politics and government.
Abstract: "These essays spanning a period of four decades all belong to the political science subfield of "democratic theory." Though published independently, mostly in professional journals, they make a connected argument against minimalist versions of "democracy." The first group of essays, on the work of various contempoary political theorists, analyze the ways in which the nature of class in the corporate capitalist order limits the applicability of the concepts upon which traditional democratic theory has depended. In the essays grouped under the heading of "really existing democracy" I propose the concept of "representative oligarchy" as the appropriate rubric for understanding American politics; these essays incorporate a topic often avoided on the Left, namely the problem of illiberal mass opinion in liberal democracies, and ask the question whether the representative element in representative oligarchy may be beyond recuperation. The final two essays examine how, and through what forms of political action, a citizenry might truly implement representative government as political equality"--
Contents: Part I: 'American democracy: theory, practice and critique' -- 1. Introduction: I Have a Philosophy, You Have an Ideology -- 2. Science, Government, and the Case of Rand: A Singular Pluralism -- 3. In Defense of the State -- 4. Equality Since Rawls: Objective Philosophers, Subjective Citizens, and Rational Choice -- 5. A Few Kind Words for Liberalism -- Part II: 'Really Existing democracy' -- 6. Rethinking Democratic Theory: the American Case (with Drucilla Cornell) -- 7. Immigration: Myths and Principles -- 8. On-Screen Barbarism: Violence in U.S. Visual Culture -- 9. Farewell to Democracy? -- Part III: 'It would be a good idea' -- 10. Prologomena to a Democratic Theory of the Division of Labor -- 11. Postscript: Democracy a s a Contested Idea.