American Democracy
Subtitle: Selected Essays on Theory, Practice, and Critique
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: Dec 18, 2014
Language: eng
Format: hardcover
Number of pages: 222
ISBN-13: 9781137382870
Description: "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"--
Notes: Source title: American Democracy: Selected Essays on Theory, Practice, and Critique (Political Philosophy and Public Purpose)