In the current contest for the American Presidency, the leading candidates are competing over who can be the strongest leader. Their portrayal of themselves as competent, powerful and knowledgeable is in response to the perceived public hunger for capability at the top. But the cry for strong leadership may also be a confession - a confession of the frailty of our citizenship.
Democracy is a unique blend of competent leadership and vigorous citizenship.
That is rather an untidy arrangement at times, but the self-rule premise of democracy assumes that the welfare of the community is a primary concern of the citizenry, and not something handed off to elected officials or hired bureaucrats. Citizenship becomes frail when the primary burden for civic welfare is assumed to be the responsibility of leaders. The frailty of our citizenship can be observed in the growing strength of our narrow self-interest. There is mounting evidence that we are far more dedicated to the advancement of private than public good. We are clear, for example, what a zoning decision will do to the value of our private property, but only vaguely aware of what it might do for the community as a whole.