Alexis de Tocqueville saw democracy as a dynamic political system. While it required specific cultural requirements for the people, it imposed many of those requirements onto the people. It gradually became self-sustaining whereas the monarchies of the Ancien Régime established conditions unfavorable for a sustainable democratic culture. Tocqueville did not believe democracy was limited to... Continue Reading →
Aristotle continues to reverberate through modern politics. It is an irony of modernization that the transition into the Renaissance out of the Middle Ages diminished the influence of Aristotle in favor of Plato. Yet political modernization has gradually shifted Aristotle back into prominence. The political philosophy of Plato is a dreamy kind of idealism no... Continue Reading →
Every book gives clues to its influences. Most books have a primary influence. Sometimes there are a few key references. But most books look to a single key work for inspiration and it is not hard to identify this source. Sometimes it is referenced in the title. Fukyama’s End of History and the Last Man... Continue Reading →
I will admit the title is a bit of a hyperbole. It grabs the reader’s attention, but it loses some credibility among intellectual readers. Fortunately, underneath the cover is a significant work of political thought. Steven Levitsky is a giant of political science who defined a new form of political regime along with Lucan Way... Continue Reading →
The line between the political and the nonpolitical within a democracy is never clear. Alexis de Tocqueville noticed how politics became a common part of life for the average person. Civic engagement shifts from the activities of an organization into the demands of the community without any interruption. Robert Putnam follows a long tradition of... Continue Reading →
Recent scholarship on Democracy has become obsessed with topics related to free expression especially related to online mediums. The digital revolution has expanded not just access to information, but the ways people communicate and express themselves. It has transformed political dissent and propaganda in ways nobody expected twenty years ago when everyone first recognized the... Continue Reading →
There are few political scientists who command the influence of Samuel P. Huntington. His 1968 publication of Political Order in Changing Societies transformed every discussion of political modernization. His work Clash of Civilizations began as a response to Fukuyama’s End of History and the Last Man. Fukuyama made an enormous impact on political scholarship. He... Continue Reading →
It is wrong to ridicule Francis Fukuyama’s End of History and the Last Man. Sometimes people have used the title to belittle the ideas of the book. Obviously, history did not end. But Fukuyama never made an apocalyptic prediction. He meant an end of history in a philosophic sense. Marx predicted a communist utopia would... Continue Reading →
Before a complex topic like democracy can be mastered, it is necessary to understand elections. There is no other institution that has defined democracy like elections. There is no clearer way to understand majority sentiment than an election. And while democracy requires more than just the support of the majority, it is impossible to govern... Continue Reading →
In Democracy in America Tocqueville was amazed how average Americans not only participated in politics but consumed it regularly. Politics has long been the true American pastime. And it influences multiple aspects of American society. So, liberalism is not simply the dominant strain of American political thought. It is incorporated into multiple aspects of American... Continue Reading →
