1 option
Democracy in Darkness : secrecy and transparency in the Age of Revolutions / Katlyn Marie Carter.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Carter, Katlyn Marie, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Democracy--History.
- Democracy.
- Transparency (Ethics) in politics.
- History, Modern--18th century.
- History, Modern.
- Revolutions--History--18th century.
- Revolutions.
- Genre:
- History
- Physical Description:
- xiii, 376 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Place of Publication:
- New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2023]
- Summary:
- "How debates over secrecy and transparency in politics during the eighteenth century shaped modern democracy. Does democracy die in darkness, as the saying suggests? This book reveals that modern democracy was born in secrecy, despite the widespread conviction that transparency was its very essence. In the years preceding the American and French revolutions, state secrecy came to be seen as despotic--an instrument of monarchy. But as revolutionaries sought to fashion representative government, they faced a dilemma. In a context where gaining public trust seemed to demand transparency, was secrecy ever legitimate? Whether in Philadelphia or Paris, establishing popular sovereignty required navigating between an ideological imperative to eradicate secrets from the state and a practical need to limit transparency in government. The fight over this--dividing revolutionaries and vexing founders--would determine the nature of the world's first representative democracies. Unveiling modern democracy's surprisingly shadowy origins, Carter reshapes our understanding of how government by and for the people emerged during the Age of Revolutions"--Publisher's description.
- Contents:
- Introduction
- Part 1. Suspecting secrecy
- Piercing the impenetrable darkness
- Cracking the Secret du Roi
- Part II. Performing publicity
- Behind the veil of secrecy
- Building a house of glass
- Mere spectators of events
- Politics behind the curtain
- Part III. Spectatorship
- Surrounded by spectators
- The disastrous effects of publicity
- Epilogue: democracy dies in darkness?
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.
- ISBN:
- 9780300246926
- 0300246927
- OCLC:
- 1401161374
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.