An imaginative program for recasting the conduct of American
political dialogue. Gutmann (Politics/Princeton Univ.) and Thompson
(Political Philosophy/Harvard Univ.), authors of Ethics in Congress
(1995), propound a theory called "deliberative democracy." With
this, they say, moral arguments over issues such as whether the
government should fund abortion or enforce affirmative action can
acquire a depth beyond the usual sound-bite level. Such an enriched
process of deliberation, they maintain, would force citizens to
truly take into account the moral claims of others, in place of a
self-righteous denunciation of other points of view. The authors
propose a program of town meetings and other public forums where
moral issues can be discussed, and offer abundant real-world
examples that show how their theory might apply. They consider at
length, for instance, an actual Tennessee case in which a group of
fundamentalist Christians refused to allow their children to use
assigned textbooks that encouraged tolerance of other ways of life.
After considering all sides of the story and examining the
respective moral claims involved, the authors conclude that "there
is a public interest in educating good citizens, and no citizen can
fairly claim that what constitutes good citizenship is whatever
happens to conform to his or her particular religion." This is
classic utilitarianism, but the what's-best-for-most model doesn't
always prevail. As the authors remark, "Aggregating what citizens
want individually . . . does not necessarily produce the same
result as asking citizens to consider together what they want
collectively." They examine the ethics of surrogate motherhood,
children's rights, preferential hiring, and other ticklish issues,
offering deeply considered commentaries. All this makes for
fascinating, engaged reading - but always with the caveat that the
authors' vision of a thoughtfully conversational politics is the
unlikeliest of pipe dreams. (Kirkus Reviews)
The din and deadlock of public life in America - where insults are
traded, slogans proclaimed, and self-serving deals are made and
unmade - reveal the deep disagreement that pervades our democracy.
The disagreement is not only political but also moral, as citizens
and their representatives increasingly take extreme and
intransigent positions. A better kind of public discussion is
needed, and Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson provide an eloquent
argument for "deliberative democracy" today. They develop a
principled framework for opponents to come together on moral and
political issues. Gutmann and Thompson show how a deliberative
democracy can address some of our most difficult controversies -
from abortion and affirmative action to health care and welfare -
and can allow diverse groups separated by class, race, religion,
and gender to reason together. Their work goes beyond that of most
political theorists and social scientists by exploring both the
principles for reasonable argument and their application to actual
cases. Not only do the authors suggest how deliberative democracy
can work, they also show why improving our collective capacity for
moral argument is better than referring all disagreements to
procedural politics or judicial institutions. Democracy and
Disagreement presents a compelling approach to how we might resolve
some of our most trying moral disagreements and live with those
that will inevitably persist, on terms that all of us can respect.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
