Toward democracy
Subtitle: the struggle for self-rule in European and American thought
By: James T. Kloppenberg
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 892
ISBN-13: 9780195054613
Subjects: Autonomy; Democracy; History
Description: The history of democracy, in addition to being a tale of social movements and political and economic developments, is also a story of ideas. In Toward Democracy, James T. Kloppenberg explores this story of ideas, focusing on the evolution of democracy in Britain's North American colonies and then in the United States. By concentrating on historical figures whose pivotal texts and framed arguments helped form the concept of democracy, he examines how American ideas and practices both descended and diverged from earlier European, and particularly English, models. Kloppenberg also shows how American thought, in return, profoundly influenced European ideas about democracy-both negatively and positively. Toward Democracy presents the history of democracy from the perspective of those who helped to form its principles. Kloppenberg neither condemns nor endorses these thinkers, but rather offers a fresh look at how these initial democratic ideals have shifted over time. He argues that democracy has remained an ethical model rather than a mere set of institutions, and sheds light on the many failures faced by democracy and its advocates. This discrepancy-between intentions and results-constitutes the tragic irony of democracy. From the beginnings of democracy in the ancient world, through the Enlightenment, and past the French Revolution, James T. Kloppenberg's authoritative work traces the transformation of democracy over centuries, and reveals how nations have repeatedly failed in their attempts to construct democratic societies based on the autonomy and reciprocity they so prized. -- Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Born in bloodshed: the origins of democracy; title: Voices in the wilderness: democracies in North America; title: Democracy deferred: the English Civil War; title: Coup d-Etat: 1688 in England and America; title: Sympathy, will, and democracy in the enlightenments of Europe; title: Faith, enlightenment, and resistance in America; title: Democracy and American independence; title: Constituting American democracy; title: Ratification and reciprocity; title: Delusions of unity and collisions with tradition in the French Revolution; title: Virtue and violence in the French Revolution; title: Democracy in the wake of terror; title: Diagnosing democratic cultures in America and Europe; title: The tragic irony of democracy.