In the aftermath of the cold war, political commentators spoke
ebulliently of the triumph of liberal democracy over its
ideological rivals. Shortly thereafter, however, a surge of ethnic
and religious violence raised doubts about whether democracy could
survive outside Western culture. Similar concerns were soon raised
even in Western nations by widespread citizen disengagement from
the political process. Voter apathy, ideological conflict, and
debates about cultural diversity intensified doubts about the
continuing viability of democratic institutions. Throughout the
whole world, then, few questions have come to define more clearly
the challenge of our age than this: how to facilitate civil, free,
and democratic interaction among citizens of multicultural
societies.
Democratic Civilityexamines the core requirements necessary to
make democracy work. Subtly interweaving case studies and
theoretical reflection, Hefner and his contributors examine the
ideals, culture, development, and organization of civil democracy.
Against a historical background, they consider today's challenges
to democracy, asking whether international politics is destined to
lead to a clash of civilizations, or whether civil and democratic
ideas are indeed realizable in a multicultural world. Essays by
Adam B. Seligman, Robert Wuthnow, Brigitte Berger, and Anton C.
Zijderveld address subjects germane to the "culture wars"
controversy in the United States and other Western countries. And
Daniel Chirot, Jose Casanova, Robert P. Weller, and S. Gordon
Redding examine the prospects for democracy in non-Western,
post-communist societies, in particular Chinese society and the
Muslim world.
Hefner's highly readable volume reaches the core of the ongoing
debate between Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and
Francis Fukuyama's The End of History--whether liberal democratic
values are generalizable to non-Western societies, or realizable
only in the West. Democratic Civility will be of interest to those
in the fields of anthropology, sociology, history, political
theory, and philosophy.
General
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