Title

Democracy's discontent : America in search of a public philosophy

Description

Despite the success of American life in the last half-century - unprecedented affluence, greater social justice for women and minorities, the end of the Cold War - our politics is rife with discontent. Americans are frustrated with government. We fear we are losing control of the forces that govern our lives, and that the moral fabric of community - from neighborhood to nation - is unraveling around us. What ails democracy in America today, and what can be done about it? Democracy's Discontent traces our political predicament to a defect in the public philosophy by which we live. In a searching account of current controversies over the role of government, the scope of rights and entitlements, and the place of morality in politics, Michael Sandel identifies the dominant public philosophy of our time and finds it flawed.The defect, Sandel maintains, lies in the impoverished vision of citizenship and community shared by Democrats and Republicans alike. American politics has lost its civic voice, leaving both liberals and conservatives unable to inspire the sense of community and civic engagement that self-government requires. In search of a public philosophy adequate to our time, Sandel ranges across the American political experience, recalling the arguments of Jefferson and Hamilton, Lincoln and Douglas, Holmes and Brandeis, FDR and Reagan. He relates epic debates over slavery and industrial capitalism to contemporary controversies over the welfare state, religion, abortion, gay rights, and hate speech.

Identifier

591898

674197445

Creator

Sandel, Michael J

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

1996

Program air date: May 19, 1996

Publisher

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Notes on front endpapers: What's the difference between republicanism and liberalism. Impoverished civic life, moral bond, procedural republic, public philosophy, civic republicanism, voluntarist conception of freedom. What is civic virtue? What is a liberal? Conservative? Keynesian economics--what is it-who was he (p. 259 FDR) What did conservatives think of it. Blue Eagle merchant. Trust busting, monopoly, regulation. What is a procedural republic? A volunteerist? What did FDR do with WRA that worked. Chain stores-1920s-Grocery. Wal-Mart v. Small Independents. Teddy White 1968- p. 295--loss of mastery. Walter Lipmann p. 205 (1914). Storytelling, p. 351 talk shows. Aristotle, Tocqueville, Rousseau, Marx, Kant. FDR, Goldwater, Freedman, Brandeis, Frankfurter. Underlinings/Notes: Underlinings: Public philosophy--political theory in practice. Lamb underlines the names/ideas of political theorists like John Locke, Immanuel Kant, John Rawls and Thomas Hobbes, references to the Supreme Court, modern life and community. Notes: "Public discontent," "1. fear; 2. moral fabric unraveling," "liberals," "Lipmann 1914," "1920s grocery sales," "chain stores," "the Sherman Act," "Brandeis," "paradox--conservatives endorse liberal ideas and vice versa," "promote growth," "1933 National Industrial Recovery Act," "Blue Eagle merchants," "Clarence Darrow," "Frankfurter," "public utilities," "Huey Long," "FDR v. Hoover the spendthrift," "up to gov to create economic upturn," "Dewey for Gov. jobs," "liberalism in the 60s," "spending," "full employment," "JFK and the tax cut," "TVA[...]centralized gov[...]freedom," "freedom to choose," "liberalism," "Teddy White," "TET," "RFK," "Aristotle," "civic voice," "conservatives 30s to 80s," "welfare reform," "wealth," "Aristotle," "1990 NYC welfare kids," "Wal-Mart chain stores," "strengthen Global Governance," "Montesquieu moral ideal," "storytelling--confessional talk shows, celebrity scandal, sensational trials, fundamentalism," "20% 1994."

Subject

"Democracy--United States."

"Liberalism--United States."

"Civil rights--United States."

"Citizenship--United States."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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