Two Cheers for Politics
Why Democracy Is Flawed, Frightening—and Our Best Hope
-
- $17.99
-
- $17.99
Publisher Description
One of the country’s most astute legal scholars explains how American political culture disempowers ordinary citizens and makes the case for a reinvigorated democracy
Americans across the political spectrum agree that our democracy is in crisis. We view our political opponents with disdain, if not terror, and an increasing number of us are willing to consider authoritarian alternatives. In Two Cheers for Politics, Jedediah Purdy argues that this heated political culture is a symptom not of too much democracy but too little. Today, the decisions that most affect our lives and our communities are often made outside the political realm entirely, as market ideology, constitutional law, and cultural norms effectively remove broad swaths of collective life from the table of collective decision. The result is a weakened and ineffective political system and an increasingly unequal and polarized society. If we wish to renew that society, we’ll need to claw back the ground that we’ve ceded to anti-politics and entrust one another with the power to shape our common life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Columbia Law School professor Purdy debuts with an unflinching yet hopeful study of democracy's origins, shortcomings, and enduring importance. Rising economic inequality, unchecked climate change, political polarization, and other contemporary crises "are not evidence that democracy is failing," Purdy argues, "but symptoms of our failure to be democratic." Pushing back against "political nihilism" on both the right and the left, he contends that democracy is the only political system that "makes real" the belief that "people are equal and free and can shape our lives accordingly" and traces the development of democratic ideals and institutions from Aristotle to Thomas Hobbes to James Madison to 20th-century political theorist Robert Dahl, who argued that "American politics was founded on a deep consensus about the goodness of the country's political and economic institutions." Throughout, Purdy bolsters his counterintuitive claims—including that the Constitution, which is "exceedingly difficult" to amend, may be inimical to democracy—with erudite analysis of the law, philosophy, economics, and popular culture. Unfortunately, the path to his proposed solutions, including a single primary system in which the top two vote getters, regardless of party affiliation, proceed to the general election, remains unclear. Still, this stimulating defense of democracy provides much food for thought.
