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The Idea of Democracy in the Modern Era (Paperback)
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The Idea of Democracy in the Modern Era (Paperback)
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Although the last half of the twentieth century has been called the
Age of Democracy, the twenty-first has already demonstrated the
fragility of its apparent triumph as the dominant form of
government throughout the world. Reassessing the fate of democracy
for our time, distinguished political theorist Ralph Ketcham traces
the evolution of this idea over the course of four hundred years.
He traces democracy's bumpy ride in a book that is both an exercise
in the history of ideas and an explication of democratic theory.
Ketcham examines the rationales for democratic government,
identifies the fault lines that separate democracy from good
government, and suggests ways to strengthen it in order to meet
future challenges. Drawing on an encyclopedic command of history
and politics, he examines the rationales that have been offered for
democratic government over the course of four manifestations of
modernity that he identifies in the Western and East Asian world
since 1600. Ketcham first considers the fundamental axioms
established by theorists of the Enlightenment-Bacon, Locke,
Jefferson-and reflected in America's founding, then moves on to the
mostly post-Darwinian critiques by Bentham, Veblen, Dewey, and
others that produced theories of the liberal corporate state. He
explains late-nineteenth-century Asian responses to democracy as
the third manifestation, grounded in Confucian respect for communal
and hierarchical norms, followed by late-twentieth-century
postmodernist thought that views democratic states as oppressive
and seeks to empower marginalized groups. Ketcham critiques the
first, second, and fourth modernity rationales for democracy and
suggests that the Asian approach may represent a reconciliation of
ancient wisdom and modern science better suited to today's world.
He advocates a reorientation of democracy that de-emphasizes group
or identity politics and restores the wholeness of the civic
community, proposing a return to the Jeffersonian universalism-that
which informed the founding of the United States-if democracy is to
flourish in a fifth manifestation. The Idea of Democracy in the
Modern Era is an erudite, interdisciplinary work of great breadth
and complexity that looks to the past in order to reframe the
future. With its global overview and comparative insights, it will
stimulate discussion of how democracy can survive-and thrive-in the
coming era.
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