The rhetorical surface of democracy
Subtitle: how deliberative ideals undermine democratic politics
By: Scott Welsh
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Lanham, Md
Language: eng
Number of pages: 183
ISBN-13: 9780739150627; 9780739150641
Subjects: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Speech; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies; Democracy; LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Communication Studies; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Democracy; Rhetoric; LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Rhetoric; LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Public Speaking; Political participation
Description: "The Rhetorical Surface of Democracy: How Deliberative Ideals Undermine Democratic Politics, by Scott Welsh, disputes the idea that democracy has anything to do with public deliberation in pursuit of collective judgment. Welsh argues, rather, that the impossibility of any kind of public judgment is the fact that democracy must face. Given the impossibility of public judgment, rhetorical competitions for political power are not merely poor substitutes for an allegedly more authentic democratic practice but constitute the essence of democracy itself"--
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Introduction. The Cure for What Ails You; title: Chapter 1. Taking Politics out of Rhetoric; title: Chapter 2. Coming to Terms with Rhetoric; title: Chapter 3. Democratic Ends; title: Chapter 4. Truth Against Judgment; title: Chapter 5. Between Rhetorical Reflection and Political Agency; title: Conclusion. Democracy at the Edge of the Abyss .